One of the biggest predicaments of living in the capital city of Bhubaneswaris being a victim of loot, be it losing a gold chain, cash or bike. The incidents of loot are occurring at such faster frequency that the residents or the visitors in the city are at their wit’s end as to how to perform their outdoor activities.
On the other hand, the miscreants, who due to the slackness of police or their failure to make any headway in a whopping number of cases, have begun to feel the sky to be the limit in their operation. The most gruelling factor is that a victim of loot stands the chance of either losing valuables or life or both.
The modus operandi of the looters is that they pounce upon their victim suddenly out of the blue and snatch away, in most cases, chain or cash or bag containing cash. The victim is just caught unawares and for no fault of his or her, he or she was going to be poorer by lakhs of rupees or getting injured heavily or losing life.
More often than not, the looters arrive at the spot of their operation on bike and snatch chain or cash. They speed away after the snatching and incase they are chased either by the victim or the locals it often yields fatal results for the chasers. The loots are taking place mostly in the city thoroughfares, NH (5) between Cuttack and Bhubaneswar and several crowded areas.
Even, the looters dare to venture into the residential areas and are attacking people at their doorstep or yards. As the police machinery has gone awry and the looters have begun to rule the roost, the women of the city are scared to wear any jewelleries, especially a gold necklace.
It’s because once you wear jewelleries, you become a soft target of the looters, who are lurking in every nook and corner and awaiting a chance. Sarita Panda from Angul, who had visited her relatives in the city and was returning to Cuttack to meet another relative on the NH-5 fell a victim of loot ecently.
Speaking to The Pioneer, Panda recounted the horrible experience of being robbed of a gold chain she had worn in her neck worth near a lakh of rupees.
She said it was on the auspicious day of Raksha Bandhan that she and her husband, who were coming on a bike from Bhubaneswar and moving towards Cuttack, were attacked by a miscreant all of a sudden. They had stopped for a few minutes at Pahala for purchasing sweets and a few minutes later, the loot took place on the busy NH.
She recounted that while purchasing sweets, she had marked a few persons loitering inside and in front of the stall in suspicious condition. However, little did she doubt to be pounced upon a few minutes later and robbed of her jewellery. She said the looter chased them in a bike in such a way that neither she nor her husband could know it and at a spot, rather isolated of vehicles and people, he came nearer, snatched away the chain and sped away before the victims’ howling could fall in anybody’s ear.
There was no police deployment. Nor was there anybody to come to the couple’s rescue. The chain worth Rs 80,000 was lost in a freak of moment. A km or two far from there, did the hapless couple see a few policemen napping under a thatched shed. Panda said that after reaching her relative’s home in Cuttack, when she unraveled her heartrending story, she was told that the spot from where the snatching happened was prone to looters. Panda’s case is just the tip of an iceberg as almost every other day one or two snatching incidents have been happening in Bhubaneswar. The looters have been targeting people wearing jewelleries, withdrawing cash from banks or ATMs and the like. “The Commissionerate police must know that new looters are not born every day. They are of a limited number and operating in particular places. Bigger reinforcement of police needs to be made at the loot-prone areas, while the police have to be more alert and disband the officials, who are found napping or neglecting their duty,” said Ghanshyam Barik of Rasulgarh.