Bhubaneswar: The norm to rent out a house in cities like Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai requires the tenants to produce character verification certificates from their respective native police stations before landlords. However, the alleged laxity of the Commissionerate Police in adopting a practice that scrutinizes antecedent verification of tenants, among whom migrants form a sizeable part, has been proving detrimental to the security of the denizens. The streak of burglaries in the City is on the rise. Over the past two days, two cases of apartment thefts have been reported at Mancheswar and Pahala police stations, respectively.
In an uncanny resemblance with the earlier instances, these flats too were robbed by masked men when the inmates were away. The burglary at Kalyani Heights under Pahala police limits involved loss of gold jewellery worth Rs 20 lakh and Rs 15,000 cash, said a policeman. The theft at two homes in Satyabadi apartment under Mancheswar police limits, recorded a sweep of gold jewels worth Rs 25 lakh. Moreover, the Nayapalli police in the past month busted two interstate burglary gangs, and made more than 8 arrests.
In both the detections, preliminary investigations revealed a striking similarity among the miscreants who hailed from different states, like Jharkhand, West Bengal, Gujarat, and others, who did odd-jobs in the day, and struck at isolated apartment homes during night hours. In addition to this, the arrested individuals were later ascertained to have alleged involvements in over 7 burglaries and robberies in the city. In the meantime, the POPD cells depict a dismal state at police stations across the City. Incidentally, officials at many police stations admitted of not keeping an active maintenance of the identification details of the tenants, of whom migrants form a major part. Juneja Kerketta, SI at Chandrasekharpur police station said to tackle rampant house robberies, the police are undertaking active night patrolling from 12:30 am till 4 am.
On being asked whether tenants were required to submit documents for antecedent verification proof with the landlords, who in turn should intimate the police, she feigned her ignorance about the same. Echoing similarly, SI Subhranshu Mohapatra at Nayapalli police station said it is impractical for cops to keep verification record of every tenant. “However, the police keep a close watch on workers engaged in menial jobs, such as construction works or domestic help, to prevent any adverse situation,” he added. Incidentally, the city has the biggest slum cluster, Salia Sahi under Nayapalli police station jurisdiction, which reports highest instances of crime in the entire City. It has been observed in the past that the informal settlement of thousands of migrants, who arrive from different corners of the state and India in the slum, had been responsible for numerous illegal activities such as hooch trade or illegal gun-running. In a precautionary measure, the POPD unit has also created a slum-based voluntary body, Basti Mitra, which is authorized to maintain the identification details of each slum inmate. This apart, the team also keeps a close vigil on freshly released or bailed convicts, and their involvement in robberies or theft, if any. Salia Sahi Slum Community President, Jaidev Naik said there has hardly been any response whenever the police intervention is sought for initiating a crackdown against criminals. “This is double-standard,” he said. The role of the Basti Mitra, which is meant to coordinate with police to prevent any potential crime incident, has turned out to be nothing less than just hype, Naik added.
DEBADURLLAV HARICHANDAN,OP