Five held in Nagpur after armed home robbery in which boy was choked in front of mother

Nagpur: A house in Netaji Co-operative Society, under the Gittikhadan police station limits, was robbed after a gang broke in. The accused, who came with a plastic gun and a knife, twisted a boy's neck in front of his mother, it has emerged. The incident has created fear in the society's neighbourhood. Police have detained five people, including a minor.

Saumya Paluru was asleep with her family at home on the night of October 23. Around 12.30 am, four to five people entered the house. Showing a plastic gun and a knife, they threatened Saumya and her family. Behaving as if they were about to attack, they demanded jewellery and cash. Holding Saumya and her family, the accused began searching the cupboard.

At that moment Saumya's 14-year-old son came there. Seeing the accused, he was frightened and began to scream. One of the accused then twisted his neck. The boy moaned in pain, and a nail left a wound on his neck. The accused then began pulling at the chain around Saumya's neck. Saumya and her son kept shouting. Finally, the accused snatched two mobile phones and fled. Saumya informed the police, and Gittikhadan police reached the spot.

Police began an investigation based on CCTV footage. The probe showed that one of the arrested accused, Sumit Rajkumar Somkuwar, had earlier worked at the office of Saumya's husband in Gadchiroli. According to police, he knew that Saumya always kept cash worth crores of rupees linked to the office. He passed this information to his associates, who allegedly planned the robbery. The accused committed the crime after learning that the husband was not at home, police said. It is also said that the incident happened on a tip from an employee of the husband's office.

The arrested accused are Sumit Rajkumar Somkuwar (32), Akash Sanjay Meshram (31), Piyush Dhanraj Goswami (20), Nikhil Praful Dubey (20) and Bhushan Sanjay Alone (19). All of them are said to live in the Nagpur and Wadi areas. According to police, Nikhil Dubey is an externed accused. Police are also searching for accused named Bhurya Pathan, Tohid Khan and Illu.