The night they can never forget

Owning a farmhouse in Gurgaon can be fearsome. Ask Fernandes couple if you don’t believe us.

Owning a farmhouse in Chhattarpur, Ghitorni or Sultanpur area might be a style statement as well as comfort factor for many in Delhi, but, in Gurgaon, even if you dream of buying a farmhouse, think twice. It can actually be a pain, a cause of fear, mental agony and helplessness. If you wonder how, read on.

A couple (in their mid-60s) residing in their farmhouse on the outskirts of Gurgaon realised it the hard way. Running a successful restaurant 'Bernandos' in DLF Galleria market, the Fernandes couple was too scared to come out for an interview. However, their brush with the law thereafter left an ugly scar on their memory and set them talking.

On August 1 last year, at about 1.30 am, they were returning to their farm from Gurgaon after folding up the day’s business. As soon as they hit the unmetalled road leading to their gates, they saw a man flashing a revolver and asking them to stop. Behind him they could see few shadows. Without thinking twice, the husband pressed the accelerator of their Maruti Esteem. However, the man with the help of the revolver smashed the windscreen of the car and was knocking on the door. They could see his face clearly now.

“We just kept speeding away. The men fired at us thrice. We were lucky to escape unhurt,” says Mr Fernandes. “A few labourers who stay in adjoining farm came for our help. But by then, the miscreants had sped away on their bikes.”

After about an hour, a PCR van came there, but the cops wanted the couple to come to the main road and fetch them to the scene of crime. “Imagine the kind of mental agony we were in and then such an odd request from the cops leaves you numbed. When we got them to our farmhouse, they wanted to know how much we are worth and not bothered about us or the shooting. They never bothered to visit the spot and left saying ‘come to the station in the morning’,” says Fernandes.

The incident and inaction by cops only led the couple to hire a private armed security guard and a cab for their office and back. They were too scared to drive alone. It was only after intervention from senior cops in Delhi, that the couple were able to get them heard at the police station.

Meanwhile, the armed guard they had hired started carrying out probe on his own. The Lal family was in for a shock when they found out that their own servant for four years was part of the gang which attacked them. “Later, we remembered he used to talk much about robbery, crime, etc in the area. He was trying to scare us about the environs. His cousin was the main man behind the attack. And the gang they hired to kill us was arrested by cops in a case of murder in some other district of Haryana. When we saw the news, we were relieved that worst is over. However, none of the cops came to us when they arrested him,” says Fernandes.

“After a few months, a constable came to us and told me that our life was in danger and they wanted to kill us for property. Since our children stay in Delhi and everybody thought we live alone here, the property mafia wanted this prime land. However, after the incident lots of our friends visit us regularly so the notion has been done away with,” he adds.

The couple feels that recession in property market has also helped their cause and the reason why they are alive too. “Land prices have gone southwards, builders have shelved their plan of developing property here and that’s the reason why we are safe right now,” says Mrs Fernandes.

Nine months have passed and Lals still haven’t forgotten the deadly night of August 1. Although they still live in the shadow of fear, but they can’t leave the place which they have nurtured for years.