Mumbai : At least 75 Jain pilgrims from Mumbai, going to a temple at Madhuban in Jharkhand's Giridih district, were stopped by a 12-member gang of dacoits who entered their buses and took away money, ornaments, mobile phones and watches. The pilgrims were part of an 850-member group, including women and children, who had arrived in Parasnath from Mumbai on Tuesday by a special train. Around 9 pm on Tuesday evening, they left Parasnath for Madhuban, which is about 50km away, in 50-odd vehicles. The vehicles ran into a barrier erected by the robbers at Dumri Mor.

The gang, armed with lathis and iron roads, pulled out the drivers and smashed the vehicles. "I was in a Car. The robbers looted Rs 5 lakh from me and snatched the ornaments of my wife. They took away Rs 37,000 from those in the car behind us and Rs 11,000 from another,'' said Rajnibhai Shah, 57. Pilgrims said mobile handsets and even spectacles were snatched from them. "When I resisted, they assaulted me,'' Shah said.

In his bid to escape, a panicky driver ended up driving his vehicle into a roadside ditch. The occupants were injured, and later looted. Eyewitnesses said at least 17 vehicles were looted in two hours. Giridih SP A V Minz told reporters on Wednesday that cops had been sent to the area and an FIR was registered. The Dumri Mor-Madhuban road is notorious for road robberies and Maoist violence. Wary of red terror, the state government last week cancelled the two-day Sri Shikharji Mahotsava in Madhuban from December 22.