The robber fired two shots at the occupants of the house before fleeing with some jewellery and Rs 75,000. Nobody was injured. The incident has sent shockwaves through the area in which several senior IAS, IPS and allied services officers live. Ashok Kumar Gupta, a director in the Ministry of Industries, and his family were asleep when the robber entered the ground floor residence in a double-storey building adjacent to Ring Road in Moti Bagh.

``He first entered a bathroom which has a door on the outside of our house. The door was not closed properly. But he could not move further because the door leading to the bedroom was bolted from the inside,'' says Gupta.

Around 6 am, Gupta's father went to the bathroom. He says he tried to return to the bedroom as soon as he noticed the door on theother side slightly ajar. But before Gupta's father could get back to his room, a man of medium build and with his face covered, barged into the bathroom and then the bedroom.

``He was carrying a pistol. He softly told me to call the other occupants of the house to the room,'' says Gupta's father, ``Surprisingly, he was very polite. No threats and no abuses, just gentle gestures with his pistol. He said he only wanted money.''

Gupta, his wife and their two children were in an adjoining bedroom. When they joined the older man, the robber asked them for the keys to the almirah's. He then changed his mind and asked Gupta's wife to open the almirah's in another room and hand over the valuables. Says Gupta, ``He stuffed the money and the jewellery in a bag and asked us to leave the room. For the first time, we thought we could trap him. We bolted the doors to the room. He was trapped temporarily. At least he couldn't come to our side.''

But the robber found another exit and broke out of theliving room after ripping the wire mesh on the door. He walked around the house, climbed a staircase and tried to break in through the same bathroom he had used to enter the house earlier.

``By then, we had also moved to that bathroom as we thought it was the safest place. And I was carrying my cordless phone. But the robber thrust his hand through the ventilator and fired once. He had forgotten to pick up the bag containing the looted money and jewellery, and wanted us to hand it over to him. When we hesitated, he fired again,'' says Gupta. This time Gupta relented and the robber fled immediately.

Gupta's neighbours rushed out after they heard the gunshots. DCP Grewal and the local police also reached the spot. But the robber had escaped by then.

``Several senior police officers came to my house later. But I am very unhappy with the way the Police Control Room personnel responded to my call. If they had been prompt, they might have prevented the robbery and even caught the robber,'' saysGupta.