Crime Watch — Surat

Armed dacoity
Seven dacoits armed with country revolvers, pipes and sticks struck at a house located at Pipodara GIDC during the early hours of Thursday and decamped with a loot of over Rs 30,000, the Kosamba police said. Although one of them fired from a country revolver, no one was injured in the attack, the police added. According to the complainant Sunilprasad Chaudhary, the accused — all speaking in Hindi — broke open into his house in the early hours of Thursday. They then threatened him and his family, while one of them fired in the air from a revolver. Chaudhary told the police that the dacoits escaped with a colour and black and white television set, a cassette recorder, a table fan and cash.

Kidnapped
One Ankur Trivedi, working as a computer operator, told the Chowk Bazaar police that he was kidnapped by two persons, Zuber Hussain Ghadiyali and Farooq from the Ranitalaav area on Wednesday afternoon. According to Trivedi, he was taken to the Olpad railway overbridge and threatened with dire consequences if he did not agree to pay them Rs 25,000. He further told the police that he was bashed up and told that his mother and sister would also be kidnapped if the money was not paid. Both the culprits then escaped from the spot. ACP (special branch) M B Pethani said that although neither of the two culprits were arrested, it had been found that Ghadiyali was involved in a robbery in December last year and was even arrested later.

Temple burgled
The Ambaji temple, located between Harinagar I and II, was burgled by unidentified people, on Wednesday night, the Udhna police said on Thursday. A complaint was lodged in the police station by Bhomashankar Vyas stating that miscreants broke open the lock of the donation box and stole Rs 5000. A case has been registered in the police station under section 457 and 380 of the IPC.