A band of criminals looted properties worth lakhs of rupees in a daredevil manner from two different shops of the city’s busiest market Bhapur Bazar at one go by breaking shutters on in Tuesday. Though they tried to burgle two more nearby shops, they somehow failed to do so.
The Town police station personnel reached the spot and collected fingerprints for investigation. The looters stole cash of Rs68,000 from one shop. Surprisingly, the police were yet to register a case about the incident, sources said.
Owner of the grocery shop R Ramakrishna had closed the shop as usual at 10 in night and gone home. Next day morning, before he came to open the shop, he was informed by his friend about the broken of shutter of his shop. On his way to the shop, he informed the police about the incident.
The looters stole materials worth about Rs1 lakh from the grocery shop of T Jabaharlal Nehru by breaking the shutters.
In another incident, the police have arrested two miscreants, Sudarsan Behera of Bijipur Bada Sahi and Sagar Behera of Bauri Sahi, and forwarded them to court on Wednesday after they allegedly looted huge quantities of grocery items along with cash of Rs20,000 from the grocery shop of Mohit Kumar Sahu of Bijipur Main Road on October 12 taking advantage of the cyclone Phailin. When both were moving suspiciously on the road, the police nabbed them.
The Sadar police also arrested two other looters involved in several cases of dacoity, burglary, chain snatching, extortion and motorbike lifting at gunpoint and forwarded them to court on Wednesday. They were identified as K Mohan Rao of Bauri Street and Koka Das of Bhavinipur , both on the outskirts of the city. Around 20 cases of chain snatching, bike lifting at mouser points and dacoity are pending against them.
The duo was preparing blueprints in a ground opposite Ratnapur Chuda Mill in late night to loot the targeted places. However, the mastermind of the group K Mohan Rao managed to flee the spot unnoticed and has remained at large since then.
On August 6, K Mohan Rao and Koka Das along with two others had looted a gold ring, a motor bike and some cash at gunpoint from Suresh Hota in Ratnapur-Jagadalpur road near Ankushpur on the outskirts of the city. While the police arrested them, the two more criminals involved in the incident are yet to be nabbed, posing a challenge for the police.
In an interesting incident, the Badyanathpur police sent three juvenile delinquents to the Sudhar Gruha (juvenile home) on Tuesday night when the trio entered the house of one Kora Sethi at Ankuli and attempted to loot. Actually, family members of Kora Sethi overpowered the trio and handed them over to the police.
The rising incidents of looting and burglary in the city have not only become the cause of worry for the police but also for the denizens, especially senior citizens. Some strangers are often moving in suspicious manner in New Barrack Street and Gandhinagar area, but there is none to question them. The rising incidents of crime are attributed to poor police patrolling and ineffective intelligence system, said a senior citizen.