Looters on prowl at City railway station

Bhubaneswar: The awareness campaign launched by the Railway authorities have proved futile as many gullible passengers arriving at the Bhubaneswar Railway Station are being robbed by criminals who offer them spiked food or drink.
A youth, Jitendra Balia of Khandapada, who is working with the Navy in Mumbai fell prey to the criminals Tuesday. He lost all his belongings worth lakhs, including his costly mobile phone to the miscreants.
Sources said Balia boarded the Konark Express at the Chatrapati Sivaji terminal in Mumbai to attend his friend’s marriage. He had electronic goods, dress material, mobile phone and Rs 30,000 cash in his baggage when he arrived at the Bhubaneswar Railway Station early Tuesday morning.
A conman who boarded at Pune had befriended him saying that he belongs to village Odagaon near his residence and took him to a tea shop where he spiked the tea and looted him.
Later, based on information given by locals, a PCR van of Sahid Nagar police station rescued him when he was lying unconscious near the Doordarshan centre.
According to data available with an NGO, Sahaya, engaged in providing free service to patients at Capital Hospital, its volunteers had come across around 14 such cases in the initial few days of this year. Meanwhile, they encountered 164 cases of drugged looting in 2017 and 98 cases in 2018.
It is also evident from the above data that the number of victims in the current year will cross the previous figures if no step is taken curb the menace. Most of the incidents occurred in the vicinity of the Railway station at Master Canteen.
However, the actual number of cases is far more than the above figure as many get treated at nearby private hospitals. The looters normally target the passengers travelling by long distance trains.
The victims rarely file complaints unless the robbed amount is very high. Three cases were registered in 2013, two each in 2014, 2015 and 2016, and one each in 2017 and 2018 with the GRP.
Railway officials said they are regularly organising campaigns with the help of Scouts and Guides and NCC volunteers.
A senior RPF officer told
Orissa POST, “The East Coast Railway is trying to heighten the security at platforms. We will increase the number of CCTV cameras on platforms shortly. We are also planning to organise public awareness campaigns in all schools and colleges.”
However, no big banners with images of criminals and messages warning the commuters to avoid accepting food or drink from strangers are placed at prominent places at the city railway station barring one or two in which the message is written only in Hindi.
The IIC of the GRP Police Station in Master Canteen, Bharat Kumar Sahoo, said, “The GRP, the Kahravel Nagar police and the Capital Police will launch a joint operation against the anti-socials to check the menace.”
Sahoo also advised passengers to hire only auto-rickshaws and vehicles registered with the pre-paid or pink auto service.