Bhubaneswar, July 21: Armed robbers looted two houses in the city in the early hours today. This comes after a series of robberies in Cuttack.
Around six armed dacoits broke into the house of Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture (CIFA) employee P.R. Sahoo at Shampur within the Khandagiri police station limits and decamped with Rs 10,000 in cash, gold ornaments weighing around 200 grams and silver ornaments of around 500 grams.
Snehalata Sahoo, mother of the CIFA employee, said the masked robbers held the family members at gunpoint. "My son, daughter-in-law and their two children were sleeping in one room, while I was sleeping with my husband in another room. The robbers entered the house around 3am," she said.
The criminals were in the house for around half-an-hour and later locked it from outside when they left. They also took away the mobile phones of the family members.
In the second incident, six robbers broke into the house of one Surendra Sahu, an accountant at Sisupalgarh in the Dhauli police station limits and allegedly decamped with Rs 15,000 in cash and gold ornaments weighing around 50 grams.
The police said the robbers, who had their faces covered with towels, entered the house around 2.30am by breaking a window.
"They tied the hands and legs of Surendra and his wife Manini and threatened them with sharp weapons. They spoke in Hindi and Odia," said a police official.
In this case, too, the robbers locked the door before leaving the house and also took away the mobile phones of the couple.
The cops suspect that the same gang committed both the crimes.
"While in the Sisupalgarh incident, the goons targeted an isolated house, in the other incident, the house was located at the end of a lane. The operation procedure was more or less similar in both the cases," said a police official.
The police also suspect that the gang, which committed a series of robberies in Cuttack, might be involved in these two incidents as well. Cuttack deputy commissioner of police Sanjeev Arora visited the crime site at Sisupalgarh.
Last week, armed robbers had broken into the house of a cinema owner at Madhupatna in Cuttack, tied up him and his family members and fled with gold ornaments and Rs 4.5 lakh in cash.
In May, a gang of armed robbers had broken into the house of retired Orissa High Court judge at CDA in Cuttack, tied up the judge and his family members before fleeing with gold ornaments and Rs 13 lakh in cash.
Police commissioner R.P. Sharma said the police were investigating both the cases.
Rs 5 lakh stolen
Two men stole Rs 5 lakh kept inside the storage compartment of a motorcycle owned by a private entertainment channel employee here today.
The victim, Kishore Chandra Raul, 48, had withdrawn the amount from a bank at Badambadi and kept the cash inside his motorcycle's storage compartment. The goons broke open the storage compartment of the bike that was parked in front of a hotel at Mangalabag.
Thieves had stolen Rs 81,000 in a similar fashion in an incident in the Mahanga police station limits on Monday.
"After withdrawing the money from the bank, I had gone to a hotel for lunch at Manglabag when the incident occurred around 3pm," said Raul.
"They came on a black Pulsar motorcycle and fled towards the SCB Medical College and Hospital. I tried to chase them, but they managed to flee," he said.
The police are investigating the case.
