Alert Devanagari residents force thieves to vanish

Aurangabad, Dec 9: An attempt of stealing a grown-up sandalwood tree was foiled after the thieves took to their heels dropping the cut tree pieces and fearing the public bash after a large number of alert residents of Devanagari came on the streets at 3.30 am on Wednesday.

It was their second attempt

According to details, Anil Janakiram Kaulwar planted the sandalwood sapling 25 years ago and it was full grown-up now. The evil eyes of the sandalwood thief fell on it and they made their first attempt of stealing the fragrant tree on December 4 but in vain. This time, they got inside the fencing of Kaulwar’s house, cut the tree successfully and were further cutting its trunk and large branch into smaller pieces.

Dogs spoil thieves’ game

Many dogs continued barking for a long time in the silent hours. A special executive officer and Devanagari resident Shrimant Gorde Patil woke up in response to the barking and came out of his house to find a small group of thieves engaged in cutting a tree in front of the gate of Kaulwar’s bungalow. He alerted Kaulwar and others before informing the Osmanpura police about the in-process theft. As a result a large number of residents with torch, sticks and batons in hands came on the streets and marched towards the Kaulwar’s house. Fearing danger of being caught and public bash, the sandalwood thieves dropped all branches, trunk, pieces of the tree and a saw at the spot and vanished under the cover of the darkness. The incident has been taken on the records of the police.

Alert residents

Those came on the road at odd hours for foiling the theft attempt include Santosh Joshi, Sushil Kankariya, Jalindar Bhalerao and Pankaj Kulkarni. They continuously blew whistles and were flashing torch in the sky to signal each other to catch thieves. But to their bad luck, thieves crossed the railway tracks through the gate number 54 and ran towards the Beed Bypass.