A 37-year-old man foiled an attempted dacoity at his home at Barkama in the Chandankyari police station area early on Tuesday.

Armed dacoits had entered Manohar Mahatha’s home by breaking the lock of the main entrance and removing window panes. He showed exemplary bravery and attacked one of the five dacoits who had put a pistol to his chest.

The other dacoits tried to overpower him, but Mahatha kept shouting, kicking and hitting them till they realised the situation had gone out of their control and escaped.

Mahatha owns an electric shop at Chandankyari main market. At the time of the incident, there were five members of the family in the house, including Mahatha’s two children aged 9 and 12 years.

On the incident, Mahatha said: “I was woken up by a dacoit who was asking me about cash and jewellery. He had put a pistol to my chest. There were five persons there.

“I replied that there were no valuables in the house. The dacoit slapped and threatened me.

“I was initially scared, but I resisted and punched him, unsettling him. His pistol fell to the floor.”

He fought with the other dacoits and kept shouting. This woke up a neighbour who shone a torch at the house. The dacoits ran out of the house.

Mahatha suspects that the dacoits had sprayed a chemical in the house due to which his wife, children and nephew did not wake up during the entire incident. The dacoits had searched the house before waking him up.

This was the second such incident in the area in the past seven days. On September 2, some men had looted the home of Chandrika Prasad and escaped with cash and valuables worth Rs 3 lakh. Prasad’s home is about 1km from Mahatha’s.

More than half a dozen cases of murder, dacoity and loot were registered in various police stations in the district over the past week.

Chas subdivisional police officer Bhagwan Das said: “The police will solve the crime cases soon and arrest the criminals. Investigations are on.”