Bhubaneswar; Jan. 24: The Government Railway Police (GRP) today arrested two thieves who stole belongings of passengers from the city railway station. They were also involved in cases of pick-pocketing.
Sources said the police seized mobile phones from the thieves who were forwarded to the court. The accused were identified as 22-year-old Kalia Patra from Dargha Bazaar, Cuttack and 35-year-old Subash Dash from Taradapada in Jagatsinghpur. They have been charged under sections 379 (theft) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.
Apart from these arrests, the police have also detained some others in connection with thefts on trains but they are yet to be taken into custody formally.
Sources said these persons, who did not belong to Orissa, were being interrogated.
Police said Kalia, who originally hails from the Haldipada in Laxmi Sagar, had been staying in the Dargha Bazaar area of Cuttack for the last few years. However, his area of operation was the Bhubaneswar railway station area.
After committing the crime he would leave for Cuttack and work as a daily wager or pull a rickshaw. Subash had joined him recently and both were operating in tandem.
According to the inspector-in-charge of GRP Bhubaneswar, Smritu Ranjan Kar, these thieves would enter compartments of trains to steal mobile phones and other belongings of passengers. They usually targeted innocent unsuspecting passengers. “They robbed the passengers when they least suspected such a crime to take place,” said Kar. They mostly struck when trains were about to leave the station.
The general manager of Baitarani Gramya Bank, who lost his mobile phone had lodged one of the theft complaints. Although his mobile phone was stolen on Saturday while he was boarding the Tapaswini Express, he lodged the complaint today. Since the train had already left the station he could not report the matter to the police immediately. Fortunately for him, he got his mobile phone back as the thieves were nabbed.
The police have detained some youths from a neighbouring state suspecting their involvement in mobile phone theft racket. The police have seized four costly mobile phones from them, said sources.
