Are senior citizens sitting ducks for burglars?

Gold worth Rs 14 lakh was stolen from 63-yr-old's house. Cops from the nearby sahakar nagar police station clueless

Are senior citizens sitting ducks for burglars?

Gold worth Rs 14 lakh was stolen from 63-yr-old's house. Cops from the nearbyu00a0 sahakar nagar police station clueless

Last week, gold worth Rs 14.3 lakh was stolen from 63-year-old Ramesh Gujar's house in Dattawadi, when he was in Amarnath on a pilgrimage with his wife Pravina. Since they were to return on Sunday, their daughteru00a0 went to clean the house with the maid and discovered the burglary.

"When they tried to open the door, it was already broken," said Pravina. She claimed that the burglars broke into her house after breaking into her neighbours houseu00a0 who is also a senior citizen Dattaraya Mulay.u00a0 "The burglars stole Rs 10,000 cash and five tolas of gold, before breaking into our house."

Lax attitude
Senior citizens who live alone in the city depend on the police for protection. But Nandakumar Swadi, president of NRI parents' Organisation, said, "Many a times, no action is taken after the FIR has been filed."

Cops clueless
Though the Gurjars had lodged a complaint at the Sahakar Nagar police station on Sunday, the officer on duty had no clue about the robbery.

PSI P M Kakade, who is the in-charge of the case, said, "I am on duty at the Council Hall and have no idea about the case. Surprisingly, Inspector Raje-ndra Bhambre, who handles the senior citizen desk at the Social Welfare Office of the Pune police, was also clueless. He said, "I don't know about this burglary. We have not come across any statistics that reveal a security threat to senior citizens," he said.

Swadi added, "We have introduced a 'one by two' system, whereby the house of a senior citizen is looked after by the neighbour."

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