An injured Indu Devi at her home in Patna City on Thursday. Bike-borne criminals hit her on the head before snatching her gold chain and earrings. Picture by Sachin

Motorcycle-borne criminals on Thursday attacked two women in the state capital, snatched their gold ornaments and fled while firing to scare away passersby.

The first incident occurred around 8am in the Gai Ghat area near St Paul’s School when four armed criminals, riding two motorcycles, intercepted 50-year-old Indu Devi, hit her with the butt of a pistol and snatched her gold chain and earrings.

A resident of the Babuaganj area under the Alamganj police station, Indu Devi was going to drop her two grandchildren when the robbers targeted her.

She was critically wounded in the attack.

Sharing her ordeal with The Telegraph, Indu said she had seen the four persons waiting barely 50m from the gate of St Paul’s School. “I, along with my two grandchildren, was walking towards the school when the incident occurred. Today was the first day of their school,” she said.

“My son-in-law Dinanath Choudhary, a businessman, was also with us but he was walking at some distance. I was about to reach the gate of the school when two of the criminals walked towards me and snatched my chain and earrings. I felt a sharp pain around my neck. Hearing me screaming for help, my son-in-law ran towards me. On seeing him, one of the criminals took out a pistol and targeted it at him,” she added.

“Dinanath had no choice but to back off. He, however, made it a point to take the children away as they were shocked and weeping a lot. Several residents rushed towards the spot as they heard a commotion. But before they could help us, one of the assailants hit me hard in my head with the pistol. I fell on the ground and was bleeding profusely,” Indu further said.

The second incident took barely half an hour later in the Shiv Narayan Road area under the Gardanibagh police station, about 25km from Gai Ghat.

The victim, identified as middle-aged Kumari Sushma Dayal, was riding a two-wheeler when four men on two motorcycles overtook her and parked their vehicles in front of the house of Kamleshwari Devi, 70. Sushma is an engineer with the state electricity board.

“She apparently realised that the criminals were eyeing the gold chain that she was wearing. She herself took it off and tightly held it in her fist. But the criminals started beating her up mercilessly and tried to snatch the chain. The woman raised an alarm, following which one of the criminals fired a round in the air,” Kamleshwari said.

“Sushma was scared to see the criminal firing. She opened her fist and allowed the robbers to take the chain. On hearing the gunshot, some residents came running to the spot. But the criminals fled the area under the cover of firing. Amid the melee, I managed to come out of my house and virtually pulled Sushma inside,” she added.

Sushma was, however, too traumatised to make any comment.

In both the cases, police are yet to arrest anybody. The cops are making sketches of the assailants.

Officers in the Alamganj and Gardanibagh police stations said the police have launched a manhunt to arrest the assailants.