TWO DAYS AFTER CHINHAT, DACOITS TARGET KAKORI VILLAGES, KILL 1
LUCKNOW: Two days after the chilling dacoity in Lucknow’s Chinhat area, over a dozen armed assailants attacked multiple houses in two villages of Kakori here on the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday.
They shot dead the son of a village pradhan and injured nine others before fleeing with cash and valuables worth ₹ 10 lakh looted from five houses.
Eyewitnesses said police was hardly 200 metres away from the spot when dacoits open fire on the pradhan’s son, leaving him dead. Lucknow SSP Deepak Kumar said six separate teams have been formed to crack the recent cases of dacoity.
The mayhem unleashed by the dacoits continued for over an hour in Baniyakheda and Katauli villages.
Villagers claim they dialled UP-100 police service soon after hearing the bullet sound but police reached the spot only after the gang had left.
Despite combing by the Kakori police in the adjoining villages, the gang managed to escape.
Jagat Pal Yadav, a resident of Baniyakheda area, said the dacoits first stormed the house of a former village pradhan Indrapal Yadav and held his family hostage at around 2 am.
Armed with firearms, iron rods, canes and axes, the assailants started firing on people who opposed their loot attempt.
The assailants then entered Jagat Pal’s house and thereafter the house of his neighbour Manish Yadav alias Lalla.
Jagat Pal and his son Mohit Yadav suffered pellet injuries while three other family members were also attacked with rods. The gang left the spot only after collecting the entire cash and valuables in the house.
The dacoits then moved towards the adjoining Katauli village and broke into the house of one Putti Lal Yadav, barely 500 metres from the previous crime spot, at around 3 am. They indulged in indiscriminate firing as Katauli village pradhan Hari Shankar Yadav’s son Abhishek alias Komal, 20, and other neighbours turned up for their help. Komal died on the spot, suffering a bullet wound on his chest, while Putti Lal’s son Ajay and his neighbour Ram Chander also suffered pellet injuries. Two women family members of Putti Lal were also attacked with rods. The gang collected valuables from Ram Chander’s house by holding his family hostage.
Two days back, a gang of dacoits had attacked two houses in Chinhat’s Uttardhauna village and looted about Rs 3 lakh in cash and jewellery, shot at and injured two women and took along two minor girls for about 200 meters “as security for escape.”
On December 24 and 25, 2017, dacoits had stormed a house in Chinhat’s Juggaur locality. On the same night, a dacoity took place in Barabanki village, barely two km from Chinhat.
“The dacoits’ modus operandi was similar in all incidents,” said the SSP.