Seeing its master getting assaulted, an 11-month-old labrador retriever, Sugar, pounced on the intruder with a snarl and foiled a robbery bid in south Delhi on Wednesday. Rashmi Singhal (50) was alone at the house with Sugar.
At 3.45 pm, a man aged between 26 and 28 rang the door bell on the pretext of a courier delivery. Rashmi opened the main door, but kept the iron mesh door bolted. “The accused asked Rashmi if it was the residence of the Singhals. He then said he had a letter for the family,” Rashmi’s husband Pankaj told Deccan Herald.
On this Rashmi opened the iron mesh door to receive the letter. The man then tried to enter the house and overpowered Rashmi.
He went ahead to kick Rashmi on her abdomen, grab her shoulder and push her. However, as Rashmi fell down, Sugar came charging from the drawing room and pounced on the intruder.
The sudden attack shocked the intruder, as he also stumbled and fell down. “When Sugar tried again to pounce on him, he stumbled and ran down the main staircase,” Pankaj added.
Rashmi then raised an alarm hoping that the security guard will respond, but nobody went to help her. She later informed the in-charge of the building and the society’s chairperson.
The Singhal family, however, did not inform police for four hours. They made a PCR call only when no action was taken by the society. The police reached at the spot by 9 pm.
Pankaj’s statement was then recorded to file a case with R K Puram police station. It is under section 451 (house-trespass) of the Indian Penal Code. The investigators have analysed CCTV footage, but are yet to identify the intruder.
Pankaj’s 78-year-old mother and daughter were not at home on Wednesday afternoon. Due to the sensitivity of the case, several police teams have been tasked to track the criminal. It is suspected that the gang targets senior citizens in order to face less resistance.