VASCO
Narrating the terrifying moments when a gang of masked men stormed into her flat at Baina in the early hours, a visibly shaken Harsha Nayak said the dacoits had assaulted her family and left them traumatised.
Nayak said the ordeal began around 2.30 am when 7“8 intruders forced their way into the sixth-floor apartment after breaking the backside grills.
According to her, the gang entered the bedroom armed with iron and aluminium rods.
“Around 2.30 am, 7“8 masked men broke the backside grills and stormed into our flat with iron and aluminium rods. They smashed the bedroom door and started beating us. They hit my husband on the head, causing serious injuries,” she said.
She described how the attackers immediately turned violent, targeting not only her and her husband but also her daughter and elderly mother.
“They slapped and kicked my daughter and pushed my mother off the bed,” she said, adding that the brutality continued as the men demanded locker keys.
Harsha said the gang repeatedly threatened to kill them with a knife if they did not comply.
“They threatened to kill us with a knife if we didn’t give locker keys. When my husband refused, they hit him again with a rod and kicked him in the stomach,” she recalled.
Fearing for their lives, she said the family pleaded for mercy.
“We begged them not to kill us,” said Nayak.
Despite their pleas, the intruders continued their assault, leaving the family unable to even call for help. “Everything happened so fast we couldn’t even call for help,” she said.
“Each time we attempted to move or raise an alarm, the gang responded with further violence. When we tried, they hit us with rods and kicked us with boots.”
Harsha added that her husband, a heart patient, suffered heavily in the attack.
“My husband is a heart patient… he was profusely bleeding with injuries in this sudden and surprise attack,” she said.
Her voice trembled as she explained how her mother, already a patient, collapsed under the impact of the assault.
“My mother is a patient who went unconscious with the attack on her,” she said.
She remembered how everything unfolded so quickly that they could not even call for help. “Everything happened so fast we couldn’t even call for help. When we tried, they hit us with rods and kicked us with boots.”
The brutality escalated when the family attempted to scream.
“The dacoits even tied us up in the balcony and forced cloth rags in our mouth and after we started screaming for help,” she said.
Harsha said she had kept gold in the house for an upcoming function at Partagali Math.
“I had kept gold in the house for some upcoming function at Partagali Math and all of it is gone,” she said,
Harsha said the attack felt relentless, with the masked men showing no hesitation as they beat the family, threatened them and ransacked the room. The suddenness of the break-in, the aggression of the intruders and the helplessness she felt while watching her loved ones assaulted left her shaken.
Even as she struggled to recount the events, the fear in her voice made clear the trauma the family endured. The memory of masked men smashing through the bedroom door, the sound of rods striking her husband, her daughter being kicked and her mother pushed off the bed continues to haunt her. For her, the ordeal was not just a robbery but a night of terror she says her family will never forget.
