Highway dacoits create mayhem near Gujarat's Morbi town

RAJKOT: Three miscreants created an illegal barricade on Morbi-Kandla bypass road in the outskirts of Morbi town and robbed over a dozen people at knife point on Friday night. The robbers openly snatched cash, mobile phones and valuables by intercepting bikes and cars on the public road. They also broke window panes of a few cars. Valuables worth Rs 4.21 lakh including cash were looted, said the police.
The police, however, couldn’t ascertain the number of victims and have been asking victims to come forward and register FIR.Two persons were also injured in the attack by the highway robbers, While one Rohit Patel got injured by knife, Navneet Loriya received head injuries. Both are under treatment.
According to the FIR, these dacoits attacked somewhere between Amreli Patiya and Navlakhi crossing road.
A complaint was lodged by Pankaj Bavarva, who runs a food canteen in a paper mill, with Morbi taluka police station stating that he had Rs 4 lakh in his bag when he left for home with his nephew on Friday night. Both of them were on separate bikes. Bavarva said that robbers had created an illegal barricade on the road with tryres that they had forcefully snatched from a local puncture shop.
When he reached near the spot at around 9:45 pm, a man in black clothes intercepted him and put a knife on his neck and snatched the bag containing the cash. “I ran away to save myself in a nearby farm for nearly half kilometer before I called police from my mobile,” he said.
When he came on the main road again, he found many more victims including his nephew whose phone and cash were looted. He also saw glasses of some cars broken by the robbers. However, police reached the spot within a few minutes after Bavarva’s call.
When contacted, superintendent of police Morbi, S R Odedara said, “We have increased patrolling on that road. The road approaching the highway is an isolated spot. As per information the robbers were locals and we will arrest them as soon as possible.”