Spunky siblings catch hold of burglar even as lakhs lost

Thrashing them, one culprit flees with valuables

A 16-year-old girl and her 12-year-old brother fought off two burglars who had broken into their house in south Delhi’s Malviya Nagar last Tuesday.

They managed to restrain one of them while the other escaped after assaulting the siblings. Cash and jewellery worth over Rs 10 lakh were still stolen even as the siblings managed to save much of the jewellery.

Police said they have identified the gang of the two burglars. Comprising of an autorickshaw driver who helps in conducting recee before the burglary, the gang is five members strong. However, even four days after the burglary, police were yet to nab the absconding accused and recover the stolen items.

Akshataya Sharma, 16, and her younger brother Akshay are students of class 10 and seven respectively at a private school in Malviya Nagar where they live with their parents.

Their father works for a construction company while the mother is employed at a school.
“The interrogation of the accused has revealed that the gang had done a reccee of the house on two occasions prior to executing their plan on Tuesday. Believing that no one stayed at the home in the afternoons, two burglars broke into the house,” said a police officer.

The siblings returned home from school at 2.10 pm to find the lock on the iron door broken and the inner wooden door closed from inside.

“We called out loudly to find out who was inside. The burglars responded by asking who we were,” Akshataya told Deccan Herald.

Convinced that burglars were inside, Akshataya and Akshay decided to force enter the house. Together they rammed into the wooden door which gave way. Inside, two men were holding a bag in their hands.

The burglars tried to escape from the house, but were taken by surprise by the siblings.
“My brother and I caught hold of one burglar each and began shouting for help. But the burglars held us by our necks and hurled us to the floor and thrashed us,” Akshataya added. She also lost her spectacles during the assault.

Having got rid of the siblings, the burglars fled from the house with the bags. The children, however, recovered from the assault to chase them while shouting for help.

The cries drew the attention of the neighbours who rushed out of their homes to nab one of the suspects. The other, meanwhile, fled in the other direction and escaped with the bag that contained around Rs 5 lakh cash and jewellery.