Three people were killed early Sunday after an unidentified vehicle ran them over while they were out on their morning walk in Chhattisgarh’s Janjgir-Champa district. The driver fled the scene after the crash, and police are now trying to identify the vehicle.

The accident took place on the Bharatmala road passing through Dongri-Korbi village in Baloda police station limits, between 4 am and 5 am. The victims were identified as Dilharan Das Vaishnav, 62, Kedar Yadav, 52, and Santu Yadav, 70.

Police said all three were friends and used to go for morning walks together. Vaishnav had retired as a branch manager from a cooperative society, while Yadav and Santu Yadav were farmers. The three had walked about 2 km from home when they were hit.

Their bodies were found scattered across the road, around 5 to 10 metres apart, after the impact. Locals gathered at the spot soon after the incident and informed the police.

Officers reached the scene, completed the inquest and sent the bodies for post-mortem. Police are now scanning CCTV footage from the surrounding area to trace the vehicle and identify the driver. A case has been registered, and search teams are working to track down the accused.

The tragedy has once again raised concerns about road safety on high-speed corridors, especially during early-morning hours when visibility is low and traffic is sparse. Residents said the victims were part of a regular walking group and had no reason to expect such a fatal crash.

A professional burglary gang has been systematically targeting vacant homes across Bilaspur's Sarkanda and Mopka areas, and CCTV footage of their operation has revealed just how calculated and organised they are. Wearing masks, gloves, and carrying weapons, the gang broke into the locked home of an engineer who had been away in Bihar for eight days, made off with approximately Rs 4 lakh worth of gold and silver jewellery, and then — in a detail that underlines their experience — locked the door behind them on the way out so that no immediate suspicion would be raised. SSP Rajnesh Singh personally visited the crime scene and has ordered police to identify and arrest the accused on the basis of CCTV evidence without delay.

The Main Incident: Engineer's Home Targeted

The primary case involves Nitesh Ranjan, an engineer residing in Vivekanand Residency colony near Chilhati Mod in the Mopka area. Nitesh had locked his home and left for Aurangabad in Bihar eight days before the robbery. On March 15, colony residents noticed something was wrong and informed his brother Ghanshyam Kumar, who lives in the same colony. When Ghanshyam reached the house, he found the door had been cut open and the central lock broken. Nitesh, checking the CCTV footage remotely on his mobile phone from Bihar, confirmed that gold and silver jewellery worth approximately Rs 4 lakh had been stolen. A precise inventory of the total loss will only be possible once he returns home.

The CCTV footage is damning in its clarity. The gang members can be seen moving with practised efficiency — entering the property within minutes of breaking the lock, locating the valuables, and then, remarkably, locking the door again from outside before leaving. This last detail is the hallmark of an experienced, methodical gang that understands how to delay discovery and buy itself time.

A Pattern Across the Neighbourhood

This is far from an isolated incident. More than half a dozen homes in the Sarkanda and Mopka areas have been hit in a series of thefts, and investigators now believe the same gang is responsible for all of them. In the same Vivekanand Residency colony, resident Vinda Dhuri returned home on March 15 after her family had been away since March 3 to find the front door latch broken and silver anklets, rings, toe rings, and around Rs 5,000 in cash missing from her cupboard.

In another near-miss in Vivekanand Nagar Phase-2 in Mopka, a neighbour named Chandu Sahu called homeowner Omprakash Dhilhare late on the night of March 14 after hearing sounds of breaking and tearing from inside the locked house next door — the home of Dhilhare's brother-in-law Punnilal Tandon, which had been empty for a long time. When Dhilhare arrived, he saw a young man fleeing the house with a sack. The intruder escaped in the darkness, but inspection of the house revealed that around ten water taps had been stolen from the bathroom and kitchen — suggesting the gang takes anything it can carry.

In Bahtrai's Deendayal Awas Colony, the home of Umesh Kumar Patel was broken into, his cupboard forced open, and a mangalsutra weighing 23.6 grams, Rs 15,000 in cash, and other jewellery taken. Locks of two adjacent homes were also found broken.

Bikes Also Being Stolen Across the Area

The gang's activities, or those of associated criminals operating in the same zone, also appear to include motorcycle theft. Teacher Ashish Bandhe lost his Honda Shine from Arpa Vihar Colony. Vikas Joshi's Super Splendor vanished from behind Tulsi Palace. Mohan Kumar Verma's Pulsar was stolen from outside a wedding venue in Bahtrai. The frequency of these incidents in a concentrated area points to organised criminal activity rather than random opportunism.

Police Link to High Court Colony Robberies

Investigators suspect that this same gang was behind a series of thefts at the High Court residential complex in Chakrabhatha a few months ago. Similar incidents in the Civil Lines area reinforce this theory. Reports also indicate that the gang had struck in Rajnandgaon district just the day before the Bilaspur incidents, suggesting they are mobile, inter-district criminals who move between cities to avoid being pinned down by any single police jurisdiction.

SSP Takes Personal Charge

Taking cognisance of the mounting incidents, SSP Rajnesh Singh visited the crime scene himself alongside Sarkanda TI Pradeep Arya and SCCU in-charge Topsingh Navrang. He directed officers to use CCTV footage to identify the suspects and ensure their arrest at the earliest. Patrolling in the Sarkanda-Mopka area has been significantly increased, and several suspects have already been taken into custody for questioning.

For residents of these colonies, the message from this gang's operational style is deeply unsettling — they are not opportunists who stumble upon unlocked doors. They watch, they plan, they come equipped, and they clean up after themselves. Until they are caught, no locked and empty home in this part of Bilaspur can be considered safe.