An aged couple was seriously injured after they were assaulted and tied down inside their house during the course of an alleged robbery at Ayiroorpadam near Kothamangalam on Wednesday midnight.
Yacob, 70, and wife Eliamma, 65, are undergoing treatment in the intensive care unit of a private hospital at Kothamangalam with serious head injuries.
According to an initial statement given to the Kothamangalam police by Eliamma, she heard a sound from the backside of the house around midnight following which she ventured out after switching on the light. Reportedly, she saw two assailants in masks, one of whom snatched her chain. She was then smashed on the head using an hard object following which she went down in a heap, and the assailants tied her feet together, the police said.
Hearing the commotion, Yacob rushed out and was also beaten on his head. He was then dragged through the floor and locked up in a room, they added.
When Eliamma regained consciousness, she unlocked the room in which Yacob was locked up and alerted neighbours. The couple was alone in the house as their son was away in Canada, while their daughter was married off. That their house was in the middle of a secluded rubber plantation made things easier for the assailants. The police are yet to ascertain details of valuables lost.
“The couple said two gold chains had been taken away of which we recovered one. A ring is also said to have been lost. But the exact details will be known only after we are able to talk to them in detail,” said T.A. Younus, Station House Officer, Kothamangalam.
The police are yet to ascertain the number of persons involved in the crime. An initial examination of CCTV footage did not throw up any vital clue for the police who have intensified probe into the incident.