The Ganjam district police and the Brahmapur Government Railway Police (GRP) in last two days have arrested 14 looters, including three juveniles, from various parts of the district.
The Government Railway Police along with a few fellow passengers on Wednesday succeeded in nabbing a miscreant while he was trying to escape after snatching a chain from a woman passenger at the Brahmapur Railway Station. One Dillip Nayak and his wife boarded the Chennai-Howarah Mail on platform number-2 for Khadagpur. Dillip’s wife occupied a window seat.
When the train was standing on the platform, the miscreant identified as Pappu Patra (25), a resident of Ashoak Nagar, Sixth line under the Badyanathpur police station all of a sudden came closer to the window of the train and snatched away the golden chain from her neck and ran away. When the victim shouted, some fellow passengers along with Dillip and GRP officials chased the miscreant and nabbed him when he fell down on the staircases.
Police recovered 30 gram of gold chain from his possession and forwarded him to court. In yet another incident, the Gopalpur police have arrested four miscreants for their alleged involvement in a theft case where they looted some valuable machinery items from a Crusher factory in Allipur village under Gopalpur Police Station on last Wednesday and registered a case against them.
The miscreants were identified as J Venkateswara Patra of Tataddapalli, A Rajeswar Reddy of Allipur, Surendra Nayak of Kanisi Hatta area and Kasilal Gupta of Narayanpur. The police swung into action when the crusher factory owner Jagannath Mishra, a resident of lanjipalli Biswanath Nagar filed a complaint with the police. In another such incident four unidentified bike borne miscreants attacked two of the employees of Sai Krupa Petrol Pump at Digapahandi-Punjikayan Charichhak and looted a cash bag having around Rs 1 lakh at gunpoint on the busiest Digapahandi-Aska main road on Thursday evening.
In yet another such incident, the Chhatrapur Police succeeded in arresting a gang of five looters on Wednesday and forwarded them to court. While two brothers were the leaders of two looter groups, the remaining three members are the juveniles, sources said. The two brothers were identified as Manas Behera alias Babuna and Rashmi Ranjan Behera alias Tabuna of village Batachatrapur. Police, however, released the remaining three juveniles on bond.
Police recovered all theft materials including Rs 6,000, four water motors, wooden chaukatha of the door and some iron grills from their possession. “The two brothers have been engaging some small boys in burglary in and around Chatrapur since last few years. When these three juvenile miscreants tactfully looted cash of Rs 6,000 from a well known garment shop located in the main road of Chatrapur on February 23 in the pretext of buying readymade dress and managed to escape unnoticed,” said Chatrapur IIC Dillip Tripathy.
Police swung into action after the owner of the garment shop Swadhin Pattnaik lodged a complaint.