Cash of over Rs96,000 was stolen from a hotel room of a tourist family here on Wednesday. According to reports, Pravati Sharma of Delhi had checked in to the Ashraya hotel located along the Sankaracharya Mutt lane under the Sea Beach police limits on December 11.
On Wednesday, when the family came out for lunch, miscreants entered the room and escaped with the money kept in a bag. After the family's return, they were shocked to see that the money was missing. Pravati went to the police station to lodge a complaint. Surprisingly, the officer on duty allegedly refused to register a case. It was after Superintendent of Police Dr Sarthak Sarangi's intervention that the Sea Beach police registered a case and took up investigation. This was not an isolated case of tourists' properties and belongings being stolen in Puri as such incidents are happening often and police do
precious little to recover properties and nab the thieves. It is because in most of theft cases, visitors after filing complaints at the concerned police station leave Puri and the investigations never pick up to their logical conclusions. The miscreants have been taking advantage of this situation, a tour operator said.