The spurt in truck robberies on highways saw senior police officers of the State confabulating here on Monday to take stock of the situation. The meeting on ‘Safe Highways’ was also attended by truck owners’ association members.
The State witnessed at least 95 truck loot incidents last year, and by August this year the figure has already neared 60, official sources said, adding that the highways passing through Dhenkanal, Jajpur and Cuttack districts are prime targets of the robbers.
In some cases, the drivers and helpers have gone missing for long and in two such cases, the drivers have been found brutally murdered by the looters.
After a two-hour brainstorming discussion participated by at least six range officers (DIG, IG) and ten SPs, it was decided that a special cell to deal with such menace would be opened in the Crime Branch police headquarters.
“The job of this special cell would be to monitor the investigation, submission of chargesheet, detection of looted materials and coordinating the trial process in the appropriate courts,” said State DGP Sanjeev Marik.
He said looting of trucks on highways is a very sensitive matter and the proposed special cell would closely follow a case till its logical conclusion. He also disclosed that that the local police stations would be intimated to lodge FIRs in such cases without any delay.
Truck owners, however, resent the refusal of local police stations in registering the looting cases. “The police stations situated along the NHs need to be sensitised over proper registration of the cases,” said a top cop.
All Odisha Truckers’ Association president PK Satpathy suggested that highway patrolling be intensified further. He also suggested for having a NH patrolling helpline number so that the driver or the staff of the lorry could immediately contact the police or truck owner in case of any emergency.