MARGAO: After undergoing an hour and half long ordeal right in their house at Davorlim, the Rodrigues family has one simple message for the people in general – it’s better to cooperate with miscreants in such situations rather than retaliation which may end up in a murder.
Narrating the sequence of events during the hour and half long ordeal, Lira Rodrigues recalled how the eight miscreants barged inside their bedroom told her and husband Allan to cooperate with them. “They assured us that they will not cause any harm to us if we do not raise an alarm, but wanted us to hand over gold, cash and other valuables,” Lira said. The family had a tough time to convince the dacoits that they do not keep gold and cash inside the house. I tried to explain them that we are a simple salaried people. I even showed them the fake jewellery to convince them that we are not wealthy people, but they thought they were being fooled by us. “Finally, my daughter explained and convinced them what her parents were saying is genuine before they finally decided to escape after tying us,” she said. “When the dacoits asked for the car and the scooter, they said they will abandon the vehicle after a certain distance,” she said.
Her husband Allan recalled how the dacoits made them to swear on their daughters that they have no more gold and valuables in the house, besides the two wedding rings and the gold chain. “They were not ready to believe that we had no other valuables cash in the house,” Allan said, and recalled that one of the dacoits said they are resorting to these dacoities because of their poor economic condition.
Even as the Goa police has deployed police personnel in Davorlim apparently to instil confidence in the villagers post-dacoity, it will take a long time for the Rodrigues family to come out of the trauma, even as they heaved a sigh of relief that all the family members escaped unharmed at the hands of the gang of dacoities.
