Babulal Panchal was relaxing on the balcony of his first floor flat in the Guruprasad Co-operative Housing Society at Swami Samarth Nagar watching his wife Bhartiben amble across the society compound at around 8.45 am when he noticed two young men walk in. The thin youngsters appeared to be in the age group of 20-22 years. Suddenly one of them caught Bhartiben's hand and the other tried to snatch her chain, weighing 28 gms and worth Rs 10,000. ``I saw my wife scream and fight with the two boys and ran down to help her,'' recalled Panchal, a design officer at Bhabha Atomic and Research Centre (BARC). When he reached the compound he saw the robbers running away with the chain and decided to give chase.

He ran after them onto the road where they got on to a motorcycle. Suddenly one of them turnedaround and pointed a pistol at Panchal, asking him to go back if he valued his life. ``I thought that the kids were trying to pull a fast one on me with a fake pistol and so lunged forward. He fired at me,'' said Babulal.

Luckily for Panchal the bullet just brushed past his chest. Realising that he was in danger, Panchal decided to give up the chase and ran back to the safety of a staircase in his building. The duo managed to escape from the scene on the bike. The Panchals had moved into the society four-and-a-half months ago from their quarters at Anushakti Nagar at Mankhurd. This was the first incident of its kind in the society.

The Oshiwara police have registered a case of robbery against the unidentified duo. The police have recovered an empty cartridge of .45 bore from the compound.