Bhubaneswar: Angry over a series of loot incidents in the capital within a short span of 24 hours, a large number of locals Wednesday staged a demonstration and blocked National Highway 16 at Rasulgarh Square here.
The protesters demanded immediate arrest those involved in the incidents of crime, including an attack on a hotelier in the area late Tuesday night, police said.
The demonstrators blocked the NH-16 at Rasulgarh Square, burnt tyres and raised slogans against the police and local administration.
Vehicular movement on the Cuttack-Bhubaneswar route was affected as a result, police said.
Senior police officials, including the Commissioner of Police of Bhubaneswar, Satyajit Mohanty, rushed to the spot and tried to pacify the protesters.
Adequate police personnel were also deployed in the area to prevent any untoward incident, a police officer said.
The road blockade was withdrawn after the CP held talks with the protesters and assured them that steps were being taken to arrest those involved in the incidents, he said.
Special teams have been formed to track the miscreants and nab them at the earliest, Mohanty said.
Miscreants had held the hotelier at gunpoint and snatched a gold chain worth `50,000 from him near Rasulgarh Square Tuesday night, the police said, adding, the victim was with sharp weapons also.
The incident took place a few hours after three robberies took place in the city Tuesday.
Earlier, three bike-borne miscreants looted gold jewellery worth several lakhs in two incidents of armed hold-ups in the city near Adi Mata colony at Gadakana under Mancheswar police station.
Umakanta Mishra, a laboratory assistant in Railways, along with his wife and children was going to railway station to board a train to Berhampur – his in-laws’ place – early Tuesday morning when miscreants intercepted the auto-rickshaw near Adi Mata colony and asked the family to give them all the gold jewellery by holding them at gunpoint. The desperados left the spot soon after taking the jewellery – a chain, earrings and two rings.
The miscreants, on their return, also encountered a retired bank employee who was on the morning walk. They took away his gold ring at gunpoint.
In another incident, some miscreants attacked a looted an auto showroom owner near Pandara under Mancheswar police station Tuesday. They had also attacked two other persons there.