Two women, a mother and her teenage daughter, daringly thwarted an attack by two armed robbers at their residence in Begumpet on Thursday afternoon.
The accused, identified as Sushil Kumar and Premchandra, both from Uttar Pradesh, reportedly gained entrance into the residence, in the bylanes of Begumpet, by posing as courier boys. While one of them had his helmet on, the other wore a face mask and a cap to conceal their identity, North Zone DCP Rohini Priyadarshini said.
What the intruders did not count on was the fact that Amita Mahnot, the landlady, was an expert in martial arts.
“The duo first said there was a courier in the landlady’s name. They then forcibly entered the house, brandishing a knife and a country-made pistol. One of the accused, identified as Premchandra, darted towards the kitchen and stuck the knife to the maid’s throat. The other accused, Sushil, then got into a brief scuffle with the landlady’s teenaged daughter,” Ms. Priyadarshini said.
“Amitha then tackled Sushil as her daughter pinned him down and snatched the pistol from him,” the DCP said. While Sushil managed to flee, Premchandra remained confined to the kitchen and was soon caught by neighbours who rushed to the house after hearing the commotion. He was later handed over to the police.
Officials seized ropes, the country-made pistol, a rubber bullet shell and two knives from their possession.
It later emerged that one of the accused had conducted a recce of the residence in the past. “Sushil used to work with an agency providing house-cleaning services, and had visited the house on a deep-cleaning assignment along with three others ahead of Deepavali in 2022,” the Begumpet police said. After his stint with the agency, he left for Kanpur for some time and was later called back to Hyderabad by his friends, police said.
He returned to Hyderabad armed with the country-made pistol which he bought in Kanpur, ostensibly to commit such crimes. “This was their first transgression in Telangana. We are checking to see if they have been involved in other offences elsewhere in the country,” police added.
