GHAZIABAD: A burglar dangling from a thin gas pipeline fell nine floors to his death while trying to escape a group of guards, one of whom had his gun aimed at him. The burglar had raided a flat in Amba G Residency of Indirapuram early on Wednesday when the owner arrived and raised an alarm.The ninth-floor flat that he had burgled belongs to a couple — Sumit and Ruhani — who work in night shifts in private firms in Noida. Ruhani had just opened the main door after returning from office around 4.30am when she found the house ransacked. She informed the guards of the housing society, who ran upstairs.“We had taken a round of the compound around 4.10am. A little later, the owner of the flat arrived. When she opened the door, she found the house rummaged. She suspected there was somebody moving on the balcony and alerted us,” security supervisor Bhanu Pratap said. Police identified the burglar as Dharmendra alias Dev, who was in his 30s.Sources said he lived in Kalyanpuri in East Delhi and had been jailed in the past in Gujarat. Cops suspect he climbed to the terrace of Block A and entered the apartment through the kitchen after jumping onto the parapet of the balcony.After Ruhani raised the alarm, Bhanu and the gunman, Mohan Pal, rushed to the flat but found nobody on the balcony. They went to the terrace to check but could not find anyone there either. Mohan was sent downstairs to check again.“We too were going downstairs but stopped after hearing footsteps on the terrace. We rushed to the terrace, but there was nobody. Soon, a few residents had started gathering downstairs,” said Bhanu.Dharmendra was finally spotted holding on to the gas pipeline coming out of another flat on the ninth floor. “Mohan Pal aimed the gun at him and flashed his torchlight. He was trying to slide down the gas pipe. Bhanu Pratap and another guard were on the terrace and the gunman was right below the balcony. The burglar panicked and it seems his hands slipped. He landed on the concrete ground with a thud, face down,” maintenance worker Akhilesh Maurya said.Police said the man, who seemed to be in his 30s, was in a pair of blue denims, a deep blue hooded jacket, sports shoes, black gloves and a deep maroon monkey cap. A toy gun, which had broken from the fall, was found on him along with a pair of large screw drivers, pliers, cutters and a packet of red chilli powder. Police said he had stashed some stolen ornaments and Rs 9,900 cash in a pouch tied to his waist. Two Alpenliebe and Pulse toffees were also found inside the pouch. He was rushed to a government hospital in Ghaziabad, where he was declared brought dead.Members of the apartment owners’ association said he could not have entered through the main gate as cameras are installed there.“There is a vacant plot adjacent to our society. He could have entered from that side after scaling the iron fence. The cameras there are under maintenance,” AOA secretary Astha Jain said.An FIR has been registered at Indirapuram police station under Section 380 (theft in dwelling house) of the IPC. “The body has been sent for an autopsy. It seems he had done a recce of the area,” Ghaziabad SP (City) Shlok Kumar said.

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