Crimes, mainly loot and snatching cases, have become the order of the day in Baleswar district. Within a week, repeated incidents have been reported from the town and adjacent areas.
In none of the cases the police could make any headway. The residents are living in fear when the number of cases is rising despite claims of police of stepping up security.
On Tuesday, an employee of a private finance company Gopabandhu Patra faced a broad daylight robbery near Chargocchia under Chandipur police station limits. Miscreants looted Rs 80,000 cash from him after hitting his head with an object when he was returning to his office after collecting the cash. He said two miscreants attacked him and fled with the cash. The police although began an investigation in the case yet have failed to get any clue of the looters.
Prior to it on Monday evening one Rajkishor Dhal (50) of Rajkania in Kendrapada district who was in the town to buy a too-wheeler was looted by unknown armed miscreants. The miscreants fired a shot on him near Khannagar and sped away after snatching Rs 2 lakh from him.
Dhal with bullet injuries around his waist was referred to the SCB Medical College and Hospital, Cuttack after his initial admission in the District Headquarters Hospital here. It may be noted on December 28, two loots were reported. While a JCB operator was robbed of Rs 3.2 lakh after being shot at, in the other case a man from Panchalingeswar road under Nilgiri area lost Rs 12, 000 to looters.
Similarly, on January 1 two cases of loots were reported. The first case occurred in Chandaneswar market under Bhograi police station where looters snatched Rs 2 lakh from the victims and in the second case, Rs 1.31 lakh was looted from a LPG employee near Mulisingh under Soro police station limits.
Most interestingly, miscreants didn’t spare a police personnel. They snatched a mobile phone from one constable identified as Bhajendra Majhi near Circuit House in Baleswar town on Saturday evening and sped away. However, the Sahadevkhunta police in this case arrested three persons identified as Sk Rabi (21), Sk Ramzan (20) and Suban Malik (24) and forwarded them to court.