THT jeep also targeted

Sarlahi, February 16:

A group of dacoits robbed 16 vehicles including a jeep belonging to The Himalayan Times and the Annapurna Post at the Banke jungle at Bhaktipur VDC of Sarlahi district along the Mahendra Highway this morning.

The jeep (Ja 1 Cha 447) was heading for Pathlaiya from Janakpur. The dacoits robbed Rs 750 from the driver of the jeep Nar Bahadur Lama and distributor of the newspapers Anirudra Mahato.

The group of 15 masked dacoits also looted cash and goods worth of Rs 6 lakh from the other vehicles, Mahato who witnessed the looting said.

Yesterday, another group of armed dacoits looted cash and goods worth of Rs 5 lakh from 40 houses at Ward No 1 and 2 of Sundarpur Chuadwa village development committee of Sarlahi district.

One person was critically injured when the dacoits opened fire during the looting spree at midnight. They also beat up six locals.

According to the outgoing vice-chairman of the VDC, Raghubansh Rai, the group of around 35 dacoits entered the village at midnight. When Vidhya Lal Rai of Ward No 1 tried to retaliate them, they opened firer injuring him in the leg. The dacoits beat up and injured Dhanai Rai, Gopi Shah, Ganesh Shah, Anait Rai, Laxmi Rai and Arjun Shrestha.

Vidhya Lal was sent to Birgunj for treatment while others have returned home after preliminary treatment at a local health centre.

Dacoits looted cash and goods worth of Rs 3.5 lakh from 30 houses at Ward No 1 including those of Ram Preet Rai, Gopi Kanta Rai, Dhruba Narayan Rai, Prakash Rai, Ram Ajodhi Rai, Amar Nath Rai, Naresh Rai, Badri Rai, Jagadish Rai, Ram Chandra Rai, Nidkar Rai, Rijan Rai, Arun Rai, Shova Kanta Rai, Jay Kanta Rai, Rama Kanta Rai, Ramkailash Rai, Suresh Rai and Gopi Shah.

Similarly, they looted cash and goods worth of Rs 1.5 lakh from 10 houses of Ward No 2 of the same VDC including those of Dukhan Rai, Jhagru Rai, Kisuni Rai and Suresh Rai and Raghubansh Rai.

DSP at the District Police Office Ram Bahadur Basnet confirmed the incident.