The Baruas of Muckdampur in Parsudih, Jamshedpur, who were attacked by an armed and masked gang in the small hours of Saturday, are still in the grip of panic as the unidentified quartet are roaming free even after 24 hours.

Builder Tapan Barua (45), wife Sujata (40) and their son Suman (22) were grievously injured in the attack. While Tapan and Sujata had to be admitted to Tata Main Hospital, Suman had to avoid hospitalisation despite head injuries in order to look after his parents.

"I did not get admitted to hospital as there was no one else to take care of my parents. I will undergo a CT scan once my parents recover and return home," the youth said.

According to Suman, police have neither been able to track down the gang nor zero in on the motive.

"We are in a state of shock. The gang did not take valuables from our house, which means the motive was not to rob us. My father is a builder, but had no known enemies. The attack at the unearthly hour has thus made us more apprehensive. The criminals had full knowledge about our house, as one of them picked the backdoor key kept on top of the washing machine before fleeing," said Suman.

The gang had entered the single-storey house through an under-construction portion around 2am when all the three members of the Barua family were in deep sleep.

The quartet were searching for Tapan, but in a moment of mistaken identity kicked Suman on the face to wake him up. Seeing the intruders, the youth put up a fight.

The commotion woke up both Tapan and Sujata. They rushed to Suman's room. Gauging the danger his son was in, Tapan rushed to rescue, but was battered with pistol butts. Sujata was hit too.

Hearing their screams, a few neighbours rushed to the house and the gang of four decided to flee. In the haste, they dropped a loaded magazine.

City SP Prashant Anand conceded that the motive behind the break-in wasn't clear.

"From the statement of the builder and his son, it is evident that the intention of the criminals was neither loot nor murder. They could have easily shot the family dead in those ten minutes," the SP said.

Anand maintained that they were, however, probing the angle of intimidation over business rivalry.

"The four had come on foot, which means they were local residents. We can assume that someone very close to the family is behind the attack. The intention may have been intimidation. We are scrutinising call details of the builder and his son," the officer added.