Bhubaneswar, May 18: Cases of people being drugged and robbed are on the rise at Baramunda bus stand and the capital’s railway station. A bank officer was the latest victim of these gangs today.

Khandagiri police today rescued the heavily drugged bank officer who was lying near the Baramunda bus stand. His wallet had been emptied of Rs 2,000 in cash, and his mobile phone and gold chain too were missing. The 28-year-old officer, identified as Simanchal Sahu, is undergoing treatment at Capital Hospital.

Sahu, a native of Gosani Nuagaon village in Ganjam district, is an agriculture officer at Punjab National Bank in Berhampur. He had come to Bhubaneswar on official work.

Local residents who spotted him lying near Telco Colony at the bus stand in Baramunda informed Khandagiri police.

The heavily-drugged Sahu could only mutter: “Some people befriended me at the bus stand as I was about to hire an autorickshaw. They gave me tea from a nearby shop. The last thing I remember is boarding an autorickshaw.”

Every other day, the Khandagiri police rescue one or two such bus passengers who have been drugged and looted from the bus stand. Such cases are on the rise at the railway station too.

However, neither the city police not the railway police have been able to nab the gangs responsible. “We are intensifying patrolling in the station area,” said a railway police officer.

“A police outpost has been set up at Baramunda bus stand. Some autorickshaw drivers and vendors have been involved in these crimes and we are trying to nab them,” said a police officer at Khandagiri police station.