The occupants of the 15 houses at Tambewadi, a hamlet of about 150 houses on Khed-Wafgaon Road, found themselves in a hapless situation. Nobody could come to their rescue as the assaulters had locked the doors of all other houses from outside.

During their four-hour stay, the gang members, armed with sticks and iron rods, went on the rampage. They forced entry inside the houses by breaking the doors, beat up whosoever dared to protest, snatched ornaments worn by women and took away the cash in the houses.

Farmer Baban Shankar Mandale was beaten to death. Eighteen others, 10 of them women, were thrashed badly. The gang made good its escape by a jeep (MH 01/ 2104). The jeep was later found abandoned near Shikrapur.

The injured could not be given medical aid for three hours as there was no vehicle available. The telephones lines in the area had also been snapped. They finally reached the rural hospital at Khed in vehicles summoned from Warude village around 7.30 a.m. Sixteen of the injured were discharged after first aid at the rural and private hospitals.

Suhas Machchhindranath Tambe, 31-year-old son of injured Janabai Tambe, who works as a government contractor, lodged the first information report at the Khed police station later in the afternoon.

``The men, dressed in black, reached the hamlet shortly after midnight and started locking the doors of houses from outside. They broke open the doors of some houses with boulders and barged inside. Whoever dared to protest was beaten up in a vicious manner,'' Suhas recalled.

``We assessed the situation after the dacoits left around 4 a.m. The scene was terrifying. Fifteen houses had been badly ransacked and at least one person from each house had been injured. Baban Mandale lay in a pool of blood in his house. We could not rush him to hospital,'' he shuddered.

Suhas said all the assaulters belonged to the age group of 25 to 30 years.

They were dark complexioned and wore black shorts and black jerkins.

Deputy superintendent of police R.G. Dahale, inspector Netaji Shinde from local crime branch and assistant police inspector R.G. Dhavle have rushed to Tambewadi. Sniffer dogs and a team of finger print experts have been summoned from Pune. Shortly before midnight, seven or eight persons had tried to intercept a jeep plying on the Pune-Nashik Road near Uruli village in Khed taluka. The police are trying to find out whether the two incidents were linked.