Raja Sharif near the cupboard
Rafiya’s son, Raja, 36, a contractor, told police he returned from Dharampeth around 7pm and left home again at 11.23 pm after a friend called. Raja later told police that Rs 9 lakh in cash withdrawn from a fixed deposit and another one lakh in cash were missing.
Neighbours later said the man had been waiting in ambush across the lane for nearly an hour. No one knew the cash was in the house, he said. The goons wrenched out gold rings and bangles, leaving her fingers and wrist bruised and bleeding. Before fleeing with the booty, they forced Rafiya to wear imitation jewellery. A tall, lanky man in a red T-shirt slipped in through an open door, barely seven minutes after her son left. Soon, his accomplices went in. When she regained her senses, the masked men were ransacking the house and emptying cupboards. When she tried to fight back, she was struck again with the plank. They pulled gold bangles of about six tolas from both wrists and snatched a gold neck chain of about five tolas. Gittikhadan police inspector Sarang Mirasi is investigating the case. Joint police commissioner Navinchandra Reddy and crime branch teams visited the Sharif house. Police are looking into the possibility of an inside job and are matching the strike with recent robberies. Raja has given names and numbers of men who did interior work at the house, and of a cook who regularly visits the household. Investigators are probing whether someone who knew Rafiya’s routine, and the cash kept at home, tipped off the gang. The key CCTV camera opposite the house had developed a snag, but cops managed to collect footage.
A robbery FIR was registered at Gittikhadan police station even as the colony on Dinshaw Factory Road remained tense on Friday.