Guard 'sedates' employer's family, tries to loot home

Gritty elderly man, daughter-in-law foil attempt

Grit of a 74-year-old man and his 40-year-old daughter-in-law saved the day for their family in Jayamahal Extension in the city. The security guard of their bungalow attempted to rob them after spiking their dinner with sedatives on Saturday night.

However, the jurisdictional J C Nagar police have just registered a complaint of ‘servant theft attempt’ and are sitting on the case, a family member said. “It was around 11.45 pm on Saturday when I heard loud noises from Abba's room upstairs. I rushed to his room only to find all lights off and there was a man armed with a crowbar attacking Abba,” said.

Husna Sait, daughter-in-law of Mahmood Wahid (Abba), and a bridal designer. Wahid held on to the crowbar and was fighting back gasping for breath and, screaming. Husna started running towards the room and then downstairs screaming for help.

The intruder along with two others, one waiting downstairs and the other-- their own security guard who was waiting outside near the gate-- managed to flee the spot.

“We had hired a Nepalese man, Gorkh Bhadur Shahi only about 45 days ago. He was recommended by our neighbour’s security guard who had vouched for him. So, we allowed him doing in-house chores as well like buying groceries,” said Azam Mahmood, younger son of Wahid.

Little did they know that Shahi was waiting to rob the family, with the help of his two associates. On Saturday night, Azam had stepped out with his friends to watch the IPL match while his father was babysitting Azam’s two children, a four-year-old daughter and a one-year-old son. There was also a maid at the house.

Husna, Azam’s elder brother Afzal Mahmood’s wife had returned home from work at around 8 pm after having dinner outside. All the others including the maid had dinner at home, which was laced with sedatives and had gone into deep slumber, she said. It was then Shahi and his two associates, carrying crowbars and screwdrivers attempted to loot the house thinking all of them were in deep sleep.

 “Luckily, since my father-in-law had a little food and because I did not have dinner at home, we both got up and foiled their attempts,” said Husna. “My husband Afzal had the dinner and slept straight for over 35 hours. He slept at 11 pm Saturday night and only got up on around 10.30 am on Monday,” Husna added.

She realised that their dinner was laced with sedatives the next morning when it was served to two other relatives, who had come to console them, started complaining of giddiness after they ate their food. She immediately called her Azam and rushed everybody to the hospital.

Wahid, his two grandchildren along with Afzal and the maid were admitted to private hospitals where given stomach wash, and all of them were declared out of danger.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (North) Labhu Ram told DH: “Since it was registered as a servant theft attempt, it was not brought to my notice. I have asked the ACP to visit the family and inquire into the incident in detail and accordingly appropriate IPC sections will be added, and the investigations will pursue.”

“It was not just a case of robbery, but attempt to murder. We had little children who ate that dinner, and what if something could have gone horribly wrong. We explained everything to the police, but for them it looked trivial and they were very lethargic. We had even kept the samples of food for sending them to laboratory to find out what it was laced with, but the police were not keen,” said Azam.