Some unidentified miscreants stole cash of over Rs 4.76 lakh from the iron chest of the East Coast Railway’s ticket reservation counter at the Berhampur railway station in the late night of Saturday.
Mention may be made that shift chief of the reservation counter Ashoak Kumar Panigrahi and his associate were on duty in the counter from 8 am to 10 pm on Saturday.
On Sunday morning when two of the counter staff members Bichitrananda Pattanak and BK Samantaray went to office at 7.30 am and opened the door reportedly in the presence of RPF (Railway Protection Force) personnel, they found that the lock (Geda) of the backside door was broken and one of the glass doors of the counter No. 5 was removed.
On opening of the cash box, it was found that the locking was not properly done and the papers were scattered and the cash was found missing. When they wanted to contact Panigrahi, who was on night duty on Saturday, he was away in Bhubaneswar.
Being informed, Senior DSP of Railway Khurda Division Chaitanya Marandi, Assistant Commercial Manager KC Bal and Crime Branch DSP Alekh Jena reached the spot and started investigation. The team of investigating officers also reportedly interrogated to the staff who were on duty on Saturday. Two separate FIRs were lodged with the GRP and RPF about the incident, sources said.