GHAZIABAD: Kavi Nagar has emerged as the new hotspot for cases of armed robbery. Between July 20 and November 20, the area witnessed two dacoities and over 50 burglaries.
In one of the cases, a group of armed robbers cut through the gate and broke open the kitchen window to enter a house on July 28. They held hostage all the 11 family members, including five children, for hours while they looted their home.
On August 2, the Ghaziabad police arrested seven accused, including three women, involved in the case.
In another instance, a shop owner and his family members were tied up and thrashed with iron rods by four robbers who fled with cash and valuables worth Rs 9 lakh.
The incident took place on the intervening night of September 22 and 23, when the shop owner, Sanjay Mittal, his wife and daughter were sleeping.
In this case, police arrested two people after ten days of the incident. Yet, the masterminds of both the dacoities are still absconding. Burglaries are also a major concern for the residents and shop owners of the area.
On the intervening night of July 24 and 25, armed criminals robbed around 12 shops in Shastri Nagar market, one of the busiest markets in Ghaziabad.The robbers walked away with grocery items, medicine and medical equipment, cosmetics, clothes worth several lakh rupees, and cleaned out a Patanjali store.
The entire incident was captured in CCTV cameras installed in the market.Rizwaan, whose shop was burgled by the criminals, told TOI, “The accused had fled with trousers, shirts and kurtas worth Rs 5 lakh, and Rs 20,000 in cash. Two days ago, I had stocked my shop with the new collection of clothes worth Rs 2 lakh that I borrowed from my friends,” he added. During Diwali and Bhai Dooj, five houses were robbed by miscreants, when the residents had gone to celebrate the festival with their families back in their hometown.
Two of the houses are located just 250m from a police post. According to the cops, cash and jewellery worth Rs 40 lakh were stolen from the homes.On August 15, a house in Kavi Nagar was burgled when the family was visiting an ailing relative in Delhi, and jewellery worth over Rs 10 lakh and Rs 2.5 lakh in cash were stolen. The owner of the house, Ashish Rana, works in a private company in Noida’s Sector 63. In the latest incident on Friday, a dentist’s house in Kavi Nagar was allegedly burgled and Rs 50,000 in cash and jewellery worth over Rs 5 lakh were stolen.Ramesh Kumar, a resident of Kavi Nagar, said that he has seen no cops deployed on the roads after 9pm.
“We have also asked the SHO of the area to deploy more police officers near Avantika area as most of the burglaries took place there (more than 25 after lockdown relaxed),” he said.Sanjay Kannaujiya, another resident of the area said that several check posts were set up during the lockdown.
“But after the relaxation, police have decreased the number of check posts and if travelling in the area at night, one will hardly find a check post,” he said.Abhishek Verma, SP City (1) of Ghaziabad, said that they were working on the cases and all of them will be solved soon. “To control street crimes in Kavi Nagar, police patrolling has been increased and over fifty CCTV cameras have been installed in the area to trace the culprits,” he added.