Bhubaneswar: Petty crimes - such as theft of mobile phones and motorcycles and snatching - continue unabated in the city with many victims alleging the police to be reluctant in even accepting complaints.

Some victims of such petty crimes, such as mobile theft, also alleged the police of forcibly twisting and diluting their complaints. The police lodge general diaries of mobile phones "going missing" even when the gadgets were actually stolen.

A victim of mobile phone theft alleged that when she went to a police station to lodge an FIR, the cops on duty coaxed him to lodge only a general "missing" diary.

Lawyer and city resident Bhagabat Rath also echoed the same and said: "One has to toil really hard to pursue a police officer into lodging an FIR. They are deliberately not registering FIRs to keep the city's crime record low."

Another victim of laptop theft alleged that the police preferred to lodge general diaries to make sure that they were not obliged to work harder to solve crime cases.

A senior police officer, however, refused to admit that they forced victims to lodge general diary even when a crime warranted FIRs.

The recovery rate for stolen properties also remains a concern as the police failed to recover even half of the stolen properties last year.

"Stolen mobile phones and motorcycles are mostly smuggled out of the state, making it difficult for us to recover the articles. Besides, motorcycle thieves also dismantle vehicle's parts immediately after theft and sell those to scrap dealers," said a police officer.

Deputy commissioner of police Anup Kumar Sahoo said they had been tracking the activities of petty criminals after their release.

"We also busted several gangs of petty thieves recently," Sahoo said.