Students and faculty claim former president of an institute for the visually impaired looted the hostel after taking them for a ride, literally

Robbing them blind

Students and faculty claim former president of an institute for the visually impaired looted the hostel after taking them for a ride, literally

This should come as an eye-opener for the security establishment in the Capital. In a brazen act of crime, more than a dozen students from the Blind Welfare Industrial Institute in Kalkaji were ditched in the middle of nowhere in Gurgaon, even as their hostel was being robbed in Delhi on Friday.

Tables turned: The scene at the institute after it was looted on July 23.
Pics/mid day

The organisation has no connections with the government and is run on private donations. So on July 23 their hopes went up with a call from a certain company that not only promised donations but also gifts and treats for more than a dozen students.

"They had promised us lunch at a restaurant and when their cabs reached us at around 2:30pm we were only too happy to go. But they left us somewhere in Gurgaon, and when we tried to contact the company their mobile was switched off. We were stuck in Gurgaon for one hour; meanwhile, we also tried to contact our hostel's landline phone but no one was picking up.

So, we dialled a neighbourhood shop and asked them to inspect the situation. A little later we received information that all our belongings at the hostel were being carried away in a tempo. Naturally we were in a state of panic and we dialled 100 from Gurgaon itself," said Deep Chand Gupta, a student of the institute.

He added," Most of us have passed class XII and were about to seek admission in DU. They have stolen our computers and electronic equipment, but most importantly, they have taken our educational and special status certificates. All of them were inside certain boxes which are now gone. We are left with nothing".

"I was captured by two persons. They took my phone. When those people were stealing our belongings, I was forcibly taken to a car and was driven to all parts of the city, places that I didn't recognise. I requested them time and again to let me go. After three hours they dropped me off somewhere, and from there I managed to get an auto for Kalkaji," said Moolchand (67), the caretaker of the institute.

"I suspect that this act was carried out by Arun, Netrapal, Sandeep, Anuj and Deepak. Arun is the ex-president of our institution and the rest are his aides. During his period there were no proper facilities here. We used to get food for only three days and there were numerous other problems as well. But he never cared about anything and even misused the donation money on many occasions.

Now I am running the institution and everything was going well until this happened. We want our belongings back safely then we'll terminate these people from the school. We caught Arun and Netrapal while they were running away but Anuj and Deepak are absconding since yesterday", said Shyam Sunder, President of the institute.

Arun, who is currently not being allowed to step out of the hostel premises by the staff, has a different story to tell. " I came back to the hostel at around 2:30 pm. At that time Deepak and a few other people were carrying out various equipment. When I asked them to stop, they threatened me and asked me to keep quiet. I couldn't do anything with so many people involved", he said.

Moolchand counters this, claiming Arun was with the perpetrators while they were robbing the place.
"We are investigating the case from every angle. A few people are missing; until and unless we get hold of them, we can't file an FIR. For the time being we've registered a complaint and are working on the case", said a police official.