With the easing of lockdown restrictions there is a spurt in street crimes like snatching, robbery and theft in the capital city Bhubaneswar.
Former top police officials opined such incidents would rise in view of rising unemployment due to the coronavirus pandemic, as many people, even without criminal history, would resort to criminal activities to make ends meet.
In an example, police on Thursday arrested a woman on charges of stealing a mobile phone from a house in IRC Village under the Nayapalli police station.
The accused identified as Priyanka Naik entered the house and tried to steal a mobile phone. In the meantime somehow residents of the house managed to lock up the woman in a room.
After receiving information, police reached the spot and arrested the woman looter.
But the ending is not the same in every case. A few days, couple of armed miscreants had attacked a woman and looted her gold ornaments in the same area in broad daylight. The woman was critically injured and hospitalised.
In another case, a woman Vigilance DSP was looted at gunpoint in Unit-3 in front of her house. Police are yet to get any breakthrough in both the cases and nab the miscreants. This is giving nightmares to the denizens of the city.