The attack on the grandfather in via Luigi Sturzo by a Bangladeshi on February 15th made the rounds of the national media. What shocked public opinion the most was the violent dynamics. The eighty-year-old Vincenzo Balbo, in fact, was hit on the head with a stone and then beaten with kicks and punches with the aim of being robbed. In the end Aslam Talukdar couldn’t find the 70 euros that the old man had in his trouser pocket. “He only rummaged through the jacket,” the victim told journalists.
The 39-year-old, who was arrested by the police a few hours after the crime, was sentenced by the investigating judge Giuseppina Montuori to 4 years, five months, ten days and 1,334 euros. Talukdar, defended by Giuseppe Testaj, was also banned from holding public office for five years. Balbo decided to appear as a civil party in the preliminary hearing with the lawyer Giulio Napoli. The preliminary hearing judge sentenced the Bangladeshi to compensation of 10,000 euros.
The violent action
That morning Balbo had just accompanied his wife to the bus stop, in via Luigi Sturzo, to head to the airport. It was 5.30. Suddenly the homeless Bangladeshi hit him from behind with a large stone. Even though the old man had fallen on the pavement, he had tried to defend himself, as best he could, from the slaps he received. The criminal had literally searched Balbo but, finding nothing, he abandoned him bleeding on the street. Luckily a passer-by called 112 Emergency Number. The police called the ambulance: the doctors diagnosed “a facial head injury with fracture of the bones of the nose” with a prognosis of 20 days.
It took the military less than 24 hours to snap the handcuffs on the Bangladeshi’s wrists. The circle was closed thanks to the vision of the cameras of the various video surveillance systems in the area bordering San Berillo Vecchio. The Carabinieri of the Piazza Dante Company had analyzed frame after frame, managing to reconstruct the phases of the attack and also the movements of the Bengali after the violent robbery attempt. In fact they managed to locate some places that the accused usually frequented. A real manhunt which in a short time had led to the Bangladeshi being taken to prison. And the clock of justice also turned quickly: the foreigner was sentenced in less than 4 months. The reasons will be filed by the judge in ninety days.
