Patna, March 13: Medical practitioner Pannalal Jaiswal, 60, a resident of road number 1 of Rajiv Nagar Colony, woke up on Friday morning to find his house had been looted the previous night.

Burglars had cut a window, broken the lock of an almirah and decamped with cash and jewellery worth Rs 3.25 lakh. But neither Jaiswal nor his wife — the residents of the house — heard a thing.

“We went to sleep at 12.30am. My wife woke up at 5am and tried to enter the room but found its door locked. She went to the rear of the house and found the window cut. One of the two almirahs in the room was broken. Cash and jewellery had been stolen. We did not hear anything,” said Jaiswal.

This is not the first such incident in the upscale locality. The residents of Rajiv Nagar Colony are spending sleepless nights because of the spurt in thefts.

Cops cited lack of adequate personnel to patrol the locality spread over 600 acres and having 10,000 houses. “There are at least 30 roads. We have only one patrolling party and it is a problem for us. Directions have been given for intense patrolling,” said an officer of Rajiv Nagar police station.

The effect of this slack is evident. Criminals were spotted trying to enter another house on the same night — this time by cutting the ventilator. “But they fled after being spotted,” said Umesh Kumar, a resident of road number 14. Umesh added: “The colony is fast becoming a favourite hun-ting ground for criminals.”

The police, however, claim the number of thefts in the area has in fact gone down. Sub-inspector Anil Singh said: “Four or five months ago, there used to be at least four or five thefts each month. But there was only one such incident in the past two months”

The residents of the colony differ. “On November 6 last year, 12 armed men entered the house of Suresh Prasad Singh and looted Rs 40,000 and jewellery worth Rs 2.5 lakh. They also beat up the family members and misbehaved with women,” said another resident of the area.

The residents said the problem had become so acute that they feared stepping out of their house after dark.

“In December last year, a family had gone out in the evening for 45 minutes. When they returned they found their house looted,” said A.K. Sharma, a bank employee who resides on road number 14.

There is some hope, tho-ugh. Police are planning to res-tart the system of submitting details of watchmen, maids, milkmen and others visiting apartments in sensitive areas to the local police stations.