The burned down branch of SBoP at Jhajjar. A mob tried to loot valuables from the bank on February 20, but was prevented by retired Naik Hawa Singh. Photo by writer

Amit R Joshi

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 1

Once a soldier, always a soldier. A retired Armyman proved it by fighting off rioters alone for seven hours and saving cash and valuables worth Rs 137 crore.On February 20, when Haryana was on the boil with Jats out on the streets demanding reservation, Hawa Singh Yadav, who retired as a Naik from the 11 Kumaon Regiment in 1999, was guarding a branch of the State Bank of Patiala in curfew-bound Jhajjar. After 4 pm, nearly 500 men entered the bank premises and broke open the ATM cabin. The 51-year-old guard rushed to the manager’s room and fired shots from his double-barrel gun through a small vent to ward off the hooligans.From an LPG explosion to drilling a hole in the ceiling, the rioters tried everything to break into the bank, but were stopped by Yadav, who refused to give in even after the robbers’ unsuccessful attempts of suffocating him with the smoke of a burning tyre and chilli powder. Witnesses say two persons were seriously injured after Yadav continued to fire shots.Meanwhile, Yadav kept calling up the police and his family members for help. At 6 pm, his son Narender Singh and his friends reached the spot but failed to intervene as the mob was armed with swords, sickles and guns. After they “failed to get any police help”, they called a meeting at their Kheri Khummar village and residents decided to help Yadav. They reached the bank past midnight and found nearly 50 men still trying to enter the bank. They tricked the mob by introducing themselves as rivals of Yadav, who, they said, had killed their brother.   After recognising his cousin Raju’s voice, Yadav let him inside the bank. However, DC Anita Yadav seconded villagers, saying Yadav was rescued by his family without any police help. “I had asked SP Sumit Kumar to help Yadav, but he refused to do so stating that he could not risk the life of many to save only one,” she said. Sumit Kumar, however, said he went to help Yadav and was in touch with him on the phone.  He reached the site to evacuate him with Brig Ajit Sethi and Col Nageshwar Rao, but he had already been rescued by villagers by that time. Kumar was transferred to Kaithal today.At present, Yadav is undergoing treatment at Aarvy Hospital in Gurgaon. No one from the administration has visited him yet. BJP leader Rao Narbir Singh met him on  Saturday and promised adequate help.