Bhubaneswar: With the sudden rise of crime graph in city, it can safely be concluded that criminals have been ruling the roost in the Capital for the past several days. Above all, snail-paced progress by Commissionerate Police in the investigations into several major cases in the recent period has also emboldened the miscreants who have been committing criminal activities almost every day, especially in the last several days.
The Commissionerate Police who are yet to take any concrete steps in this regard have been running after some wild guesses and assumptions. Criminals, in an open challenge to the city police, are engaged in various crime incidents including murder and robbery. However, police have been failing to trace them despite having various clues like CCTV footages.
According to an estimate there are around 40 odd cases of serious crime incidents including robbery, snatching of gold jewelry and other valuables and murderous attacks on various people took place in the Capital in the last 45 days. The number will rise significantly if we add up the cases of looting of commuters at Bhubaneswar Railways station and Baramunda Bus stand which goes unreported most of the time. However, the cops have been still awaiting a major breakthrough in the above cases.
Major cases that Police failed to crack:
- A gang of ten unknown masked robbers looted valuables worth over 10 lakhs from the house of a banker by holding the 5-month-old baby at knife point at Kanan Vihar area under the Chandresekharpur police station limits February 27. According to Police, the miscreants were from outside the state fled from state after committing the crime.
- Five masked bike-borne miscreants armed with guns and sharp weapons unleashed a reign of terror at the Chandrasekharpur area and Nanadankanan area looting several morning walkers of valuables worth over lakhs during early morning March 15. They also attacked other residents who came to rescue others. Similarly, miscreants looted `5 lakhs from the house of a contractor in Niladri Vihar area under Chandreskharpur Police station limits few days back.
- Bag containing jewellery worth around 30 lakhs was stolen by a miscreant at Maa Gouri Jewelry at Nayapalli area. Police have CCTV footage of the theft but yet to find out the culprit.
- A security guard, Gadadhara Swain, was found dead in a pool of blood with his throat slit three days back. Police found several leads including a note from the shirt pocket of the slain security guard reportedly written by him mentioning the persons responsible for his death.
The worried denizens few days back apprised the Commissioner of Police Satyajit Mohanty of the fearful atmosphere prevails due to the terror unleashed by the snatchers and other criminals in their respective areas. Commissioner Mohanty assured the denizens that police would take every step to ensure safety for the residents especially, the elderly morning walkers who have been falling prey to the looters often. Commenting on this issue, Satyajit Mohanty said, “We are on the verge of solving the death case of security guard Gadadhar Swain. There has been enough progress in the other cases as well and will be solved within a short time.”
Following the assurances, Commissionerate Police issued advisory to check dawn snatching incidents that includes:
- The trained cops deployed in the PCR Vans have been availed with fire arms to deal with heavily-armed looters.
- IICs have been asked to select and increase patrolling at the snatching-prone areas in the city.
- Change in patrolling hours to check the looting incidents during the dawn.
- The officials have also been instructed to change the timings of blocking and checking hours at important places in the city.