Goons rob woman DSP at gunpoint, stab elderly woman in Bhubaneswar
Lady DSP Tanuja Mohanty’s residence
BHUBANESWAR: Unfazed by the heavy police deployment and patrolling at different places during the lockdown, unidentified criminals robbed jewellery from two women, including a deputy superintendent of police (DSP) at gunpoint in Kharavela Nagar and snatched an elderly woman’s chain by attacking her in Nayapalli area here on Sunday.
Tanuja Mohanty, the lady DSP, was sweeping the floor of her house in Unit-3 area when she saw two persons on a bike halting outside her home. One of them called Mohanty on the pretext of looking for someone’s address. As Mohanty came close to the entrance grille, the miscreant pulled out a firearm and pointed it towards the DSP. “He forced me to give him my chain and earrings. I raised an alarm. My husband rushed outside and tried to intervene. But he brandished the revolver and attacked us. He snatched my chain and earrings,” Mohanty wrote in her complaint.
Mohanty is currently posted with the Odisha vigilance directorate in Bhubaneswar. The brazen incident occurred around 6.40am. Nobody in the neighbourhood was present when the incident occurred.
As the crime left the commissionerate police embarrassed, unidentified miscreants snatched a chain from another woman in Kharavel Nagar area around 7.30 am. “We are trying to co-relate both the incidents to verify whether the crimes were committed by the same persons. Special teams have been formed to crack the cases,” deputy commissioner of police Uma Shankar Dash said.
Before the cops could begin the investigation, an elderly woman was brutally assaulted and robbed of her belongings in the N-4 area of IRC Village under Nayapalli police limits around 10 am. The woman, who was around 70-year-old, was alone at home as her husband had gone out to buy vegetables. “Two men pressed the calling bell of her house. When she came out, they attacked her and snatched her rings and chain. When she resisted, they stabbed her. She was admitted to a private hospital where her condition was serious,” an officer of Nayapalli police station said. Though some tenants stayed in the elderly couple’s house ground floor, they did not get a whiff of the loot.
Notably, at least 15 snatching cases have been reported in Bhubaneswar in the last two months. In most cases, the police failed to make any headway as the miscreants wore masks.