Patna, Jan. 5: The number of superintendents of police in the state capital is variable. The crime graph is constant. It just surges north.

A robbery in the Hardinge Park Road area in small hours today jacked up the crime graph further. The incident punched holes on tall claims of policing in the city.

The Telegraph in its January 5 edition had reported the puzzling policing policy in the state capital. The robbery at the official residence of a postal department accountant, recently transferred to Dibrugarh, once again exposed the chinks in the law and order situation.

Five masked persons broke into the house (quarters number 1/5) of Satyanandan, barely 2km away from Sachivalaya police station but under the jurisdiction of Kotwali police station, around 3am. They beat up his wife, Prabha Jha, and mother before fleeing with ornaments worth Rs 3 lakh. The police were clueless about the criminals till the filing of this report.

Immediately after receiving information about the incident, Satyanandan started for Patna from Dibrugarh.

The octogenarian mother of Satyanandan was shell-shocked. She was speechless till late in the evening.

Prabha told The Telegraph that she and her mother-in-law were in deep sleep when the criminals entered their house. “The criminals broke the back door of the house and came inside in a flash. There were five people in all and their faces were covered. Some of them had country-made pistols, while the rest had knives. Before we could react, they roughed us up demanding the keys of the almirah. They misbehaved with us and showed no mercy towards my mother-in-law, who is very old and weak,” Jha told The Telegraph.

“They repeatedly threatened to beat us up and then kill us. I had no other option but to hand them over the keys of the almirah. Once I gave them the keys, they locked us inside the toilet. I could hear the sound of opening the cupboard and our belongings being thrown on the floor. The almirah had jewellery worth Rs 3 lakh. After an hour or so, the sounds stopped. We realised the criminals had left,” Prabha said.

“We had no choice but to wait inside the toilet for the milkman, who comes to our house every morning at 6, to free us. We waited for two hours. Once he knocked on the door, we started screaming at the top of our voice so that he could hear us. Fortunately, he did. He entered our house through the backdoor broke open by the criminals and rescued us. We came out and saw that the room was ransacked and all the ornaments were missing,” Prabha sobbed.

The trauma of the two women barely had any impact on the cops of Kotwali police station. They appeared to be going through the motions.

Aman Kumar, the station house officer of Kotwali police station, said: “We are investigating the case. We have not been able to make any breakthrough yet.”

The officer was, however, confident of arresting the criminals. So was his boss, Patna senior superintendent of police (SSP) Alok Kumar.

Kumar told The Telegraph: “The police are serious and the matter is being looked into. The cops personnel concerned have been asked to look into all the angles related to the case and trace the criminals. We will be making a breakthrough very soon.”

When asked about the foot patrolling drive of the police, the SSP said it was meant just for the main roads.