India stunned by attack on Durban diplomat’s family

A screen shot from a CCTV camera shows some of the armed robbers at India House.

A screen shot from a CCTV camera shows some of the armed robbers at India House.

Published Nov 23, 2017

Share

Durban - Traumatised by their terror ordeal at India House, the family of India’s Consul-General in Durban, Dr Shashank Vikram, are looking forward to recovering back home as they make sense of their first brush with serious crime in South Africa.

The family of four left for India on a planned year-end break this week, as authorities here deal with the aftermath of a horrific robbery that sent shock waves through both countries.

Read: 

As South Africans commemorated the arrival of indentured labourers to this country 157 years ago on Thursday, eight robbers armed with guns and crowbars invaded India House, Vikram’s official residence, holding his 5-year-old son hostage.

Being a diplomatic establishment, the robbery, he told POST, should never have happened, and came as a “very rude shock”.

The incident was widely reported in India.

The Economic Times said Indian diplomats had faced the ire of terrorists in Afghanistan and had been caught in the crossfire in civil wars in Africa, but this was the first case of a major home robbery.

“Although Indian diplomats have been targeted by miscreants and burglars on the streets of South Africa, this was the first instance where the house was targeted.”

Police spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Thulani Zwane said that when security guards and police arrived, the suspects had already fled with jewellery.

“We have a team of seasoned detectives looking into the matter. CCTV footage of the incident was made available to detectives and we are confident of a breakthrough,” he said.

“Police will conduct more visits to liaise with the security guards on the premises. Police patrols will be intensified in the area.”

Zwane said that with home robberies information was often leaked to criminals. “Criminals are in and out very quickly and seem to know where valuables are stored.”

Vikram said private armed response officers had arrived about 15 minutes after the alarm had been activated. Police arrived only after he had called them.

The intruders had burst into the historic home at around 4pm after attacking and overpowering a guard who had gone down to the driveway gate when a car pulled up. He had failed to take his panic button with him, according to a source.

Vikram’s wife, Dr Megha Singh, and the couple’s two young children were at home at the time and were subjected to a terrifying 10-minute ordeal during which their 5-year-old son was held hostage as the robbers demanded money and gold.

The brazen robbers ransacked the sprawling mansion, smashing open doors, and an upstairs retractable security gate, with crowbars.

Singh and her older son sought refuge in an upstairs room.

She later pressed the panic button in the bedroom, but nothing happened. She then called her husband, who rushed home from a meeting in uMhlanga.

The intruders fled via the kitchen door they had used to enter the house.

“It was a terrifying experience,” said Singh.

India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had spoken to Vikram about the incident.

The DA said it was “deeply concerned” that, despite the SAPS VIP Protection Unit being allocated an annual R2.8billion budget, and the home having private guards, police still failed to keep them safe, “just like they fail ordinary South Africans on a daily basis”.

“We cannot reach a stage where diplomats are warned against coming to live in our country. Until this attack, all diplomats have been safe here,” the party’s spokesperson on policing matters, MP Dianne Kohler Barnard, told POST.

“This has been a rude wake-up call.”

Kohler Barnard said the invasion, and the fact that the SAPS had made no arrests, would be a story repeated in diplomatic missions abroad.

“If the SAPS cannot keep the family of the Indian consul-general in Durban safe in their home in broad daylight, how can ordinary people like you and me ever feel safe in our homes?”

IFP MP Narend Singh vowed to raise the matter with Police Minister Fikile Mbalula in Parliament.

“This incident further demonstrates the increasing levels of criminality and lawlessness that are sweeping our country,” he said.

“The brazen invasion of one’s privacy despite security measures being in place leaves one dumbfounded. It shows that no one is immune from these kinds of robberies. A thorough investigation needs to be conducted with regard to the alleged ineptitude of the security company and the police.”

Neither the ANC in KwaZulu- Natal nor the office of the premier had commented by time of publication.

POST

Related Topics: