Puri native robbed of belongings on landing in city after 3 months
Bhubaneswar: After being stranded in Bangalore for three months during the lockdown, Lipak Mallick, who teaches Sanskrit in a college in the southern city, felt that his ordeal had finally ended when he landed at the Biju Patnaik International Airport here on Wednesday evening. Little did he know then that his woes were far from over. He was robbed of the fleeting moment of his happiness by a group of thieves before he could reach his home in Puri district.
Mallick said after arriving at the airport around 8pm, he hired an auto-rickshaw and reached Baramunda bus stand to board a bus to his village at Gabakunda in Puri. But he could neither find a single bus or any other means of transport to reach home. “It was already 9pm and I was worried. An auto-rickshaw driver approached me and asked me about my destination. He demanded Rs 1,000 to drop me at my village that is around 50km from Bhubaneswar. I had no other option, but to accept his offer,” Mallick said.
In his complaint, Mallick alleged that the driver called someone over phone midway and stopped the vehicle in an isolated place. “It was pitch dark. There were no street lights. He stopped the auto-rickshaw nearly six or seven kilometre from the Baramunda bus stand. Suddenly, two men came on a bike and asked me to hand over all my belongings. When I resisted, the two miscreants along with the auto-rickshaw driver attacked me. They snatched Rs 1,500 that I had in cash, my phone and bag before abandoning me in the isolated place,” Mallick said.
Mallick, who is not well-conversant with the routes in the city, reached Khandagiri police station with great difficulty. Before boarding the auto-rickshaw at Baramunda bus stand, Mallick had made a mental note of the vehicle’s registration number and gave away the clue to the police.
Cmmissioner of police Sudhanshu Sarangi asked the zonal assistant commissioner of police and the local police station to inquire into the matter and take immediate action. Additional commissioner police Anup Kumar Sahoo said the auto driver has been identified.