Bhubaneswar, Sept. 5: Four armed men, disguised as prospective tenants, today looted gold ornaments weighing around 120 grams from a retired government employee's house at Gandamunda after beating him and his wife.

They had also gagged the woman, so that she could not scream for help.

Subash Chandra Prusty, 71, his wife Sradhanjali, 61, and his sister-in-law Kavitanjali, 45, were in the house when the incident took place around 12.50pm. As it happened in a busy locality, barely 500 metres from Khandagiri police station, local people raised questions about the safety of citizens.

The dacoits entered the house on the pretext of taking a room on rent. They had carried out the recce yesterday when they visited the house and spoke to the landlord.

"Two youths came over yesterday afternoon, saying that they were looking for a rented accommodation for two girls. As we have a vacant room on the second floor, I gave them the keys, so that they could see whether it served their purpose. In the evening, both of them came again and asked for the keys, saying that they wanted to click the room's photographs and would send them to the girls. But as it was evening, we refused to give them the keys at that time," said Prusty.

This afternoon, one of the youths came to Prusty's house with another person and again asked for the room's keys.

This time, Sradhanjali handed it over to them.

"My wife gave them the keys through the window. After five minutes, they knocked the door to return it. As soon as my wife had opened the door, they gagged her mouth with a plastic tape and took away her necklace and gold ring. By that time, two other associates of the criminals also entered the house. While all this was happening, I was in my bedroom, and my sister-in-law was in the drawing room," said Prusty.

When Kaviatanjali saw this happening, she ran out of the house through the backdoor.

"On hearing her screams, I came out of my room only to find the criminals holding sharp weapons. They pushed me and threatened me before taking away my gold chain and ring. They also demanded the almirah keys," he said.

"As my sister-in-law has escaped from the spot, the criminals sensing trouble locked me in the bedroom. I opened the window and shouted for help. By the time my neighbours reached our house, the criminals fled," said Prusty.

The senior citizen's son lives in Vishakhapatnam, while his daughter resides in the US.

Though two other families stay on the first floor of the house. One of the families was not present when the incident took place, while another had no clue of what was happening on the ground floor. The shopkeepers near the house also did not get any clue that dacoits were raiding the home of the Prustys.

Deputy commissioner of police Satyabrata Bhoi said they were analysing the CCTV footage of a house located in front of the Prusty's. "We are suspecting that the criminals were aware that the couple were staying alone," said Bhoi.