Lake Town Witnesses Twin Burglaries

Kolkata: Two burglaries took place in one night in Lake Town, sending fear waves among residents. Police officers of the Bidhannagar Commissionerate are working overtime to catch the culprits, who they suspect belong to the same gang.

In both incidents, the burglars attacked senior citizens who lived alone. Collectively, valuables and cash worth around Rs 8 lakh were stolen.

Residents were outraged as both the apartments that were broken into are centrally located, and at a stone’s throw away from the local police station.

Chirurani Saha (72), who lives in Lake Town’s A block, said that her house was broken into at around 2 AM. Saha, who stays alone, was asleep, but woke up when she felt movement on her bed. Seconds later, a man was holding a sharp weapon to her neck. He then quickly removed a gold chain, two gold bangles, two finger rings, and a pair of earrings she was wearing, all worth Rs 4 lakh collectively. By the time she managed to scream, the burglar had escaped and due to the darkness, she was unable to see him clearly. She later went with her sons to file an FIR at Lake Town police station. The second flat that was broken into was occupied by Sneha Tharrar (64), who had gone to her daughter’s place. The burglars entered the flat by breaking the store room window and stole gold and cash worth Rs 3.3 lakh.

The police are yet to find any leads. Santosh Pandey, deputy commissioner of the detective department in Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate, said, “We are investigating both the incidents. Hopefully we will catch the culprits soon.” Sources said that because the burglaries happened at around the same time, the police suspect that the same gang is behind both crimes.