Bhubaneswar: Police Thursday arrested a man for allegedly stealing Rs 2.50 lakh cash and gold ornaments worth Rs 50 lakh from the house of senior Odisha Congress leader Niranjan Patnaik January 26, a senior police officer said.
The accused was identified as Satish Reddy alias Spider Satish, a native of Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.
Speaking to reporters here, Bhubaneswar-Cuttack police commissioner S Dev Datta Singh said, “We arrested the accused from the outskirts of Vizianagaram in Andhra Pradesh after examining more than 400 CCTV footage, call records of 10,000 phone numbers, and 50 suspects.”
As the burglar covered his entire body including face with a mask and hands with gloves, it was a very difficult task for police to identify the accused, he said.
“Multiple specialised police teams were formed to crack the case. The teams visited different places in Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Kerala for investigation and finally, it was found that the accused was in Kerala jail for some time in connection to a case,” he said.
“Shakti was involved in at least 17 such cases including two cases in Odisha. He robbed the house of a renowned contractor in the same area in Bhubaneswar in 2023,” Singh said.
The police commissioner said, “We have seized a car, stolen cash, gold ornaments and other items such apparel, shoes and a torch that he used to commit the crime.”
Almost all stolen items and cash were recovered from the accused and those handed over to the victim, said Bhubaneswar DCP Pinak Mishra.
“We got all the stolen cash and most of the ornaments. Our police force is quite capable of cracking such a burglary case. But, there is a need to provide them quality training so that they can crack difficult crime cases more efficiently,” said Congress leader Niranjan Patnaik.
PTI