Patna, July 26: Residents of the capital are no longer safe, not even in their homes, it seems. The incident of a group of youths barging into a flat and beating up its occupants last evening is evident of the rising crime graph.

The residents of the four-storeyed building now are a terrorised lot a day after the youths barged into flat number 204 of DD Apartments in Ashiana Nagar under Shastrinagar police station and beat up a brother-sister duo.

The police whose claims of intensive and regular patrolling seem to be falling face first have been able to arrest only one among the four attackers till reports last came in.

Ashish Singh, whose wife Priyanka and brother-in-law Shashank were beaten up by the attackers, told The Telegraph though the police had been at their door for investigation purposes, the lack of breakthrough was appalling.

“While we reside in flat number 203, my brother-in-law Shashank Singh, who is an advocate with Patna High Court, lives in flat number 204. Last evening, I was not in my house and my wife was at her brother’s apartment with the main door ajar. Suddenly, a youth rushed inside pleading to be saved. Before one could comprehend anything, four more youths rushed in with iron rods and a baseball bat. Without any logic, they hit my wife on her head with the bat, which broke under the impact. They beat up my brother-in-law with a rod. Hearing their cries for help, other residents of the apartment came to their rescue and the youths took to their heels,” Ashish, a senior member of the Bihar Navnirman Manch, an outfit formed by the dissident JD(U) members, said. The police, during investigations, have found that the youths were chasing one Dharmesh, a student, who loved a girl and was pestering her often. The girl, tired of the nuisance, had allegedly asked Dharmesh to meet her. Once he reached the point of meeting, she pointed him to her friend Abhishek, who was waiting with three other youths to bash him up.

The four chased Dharmesh who rushed into DD Apartments. The attackers followed him into the building and beat up the residents thinking they were trying to save Dharmesh.

“The police have arrested Abhishek and raids are on to arrest the other three,” Patna city superintendent of police Shivdeep Lande said.

Earlier, residents of the apartment caught Dharmesh and handed him over to police. Residents of the building cited the incident as an example of a total lack of policing.

“It seems that terror times have come back. The police talk about patrolling all areas most of the time during the day. Here we have criminals getting into people’s homes and bashing them up. Is this policing? There are criminal incidents happening everyday. We are a terrorised lot,” said a resident of the apartment on condition of anonymity.

The crime figures of the capital in the past few months are a tell-tale sign of the trend.

Earlier, the police, during all its meetings, discussed about intensive patrolling and orders were issued to ensure round-the-clock police presence.

“People repose little confidence in the men in uniform. Nowadays, people are being robbed or are shot dead in daylight,” said Amar Kumar, a resident of Ashiana Nagar.

The police, however, differed. “It cannot be said that there is no patrolling. These incidents are stray instances. The police are on the road most of the times and criminal incidents have been curbed,” a police officer said.