ROURKELA: Around 20 armed miscreants raided an under-construction power grid site near Darjing in Sundargarh’s Lahunipada area and took the workers hostage before looting copper and electrical goods worth about `95 lakh in the intervening night of Thursday and Friday.
The construction site, located in an isolated area, is protected with boundary wall along National Highway-143, about 50 km from Rourkela. The miscreants stayed at the site from 11 pm on Thursday to 3 am on Friday before decamping with the goods.
Sources said the miscreants armed with sharp weapons, iron roads and sticks arrived at the site in a pickup van and barged inside the campus. They assaulted and overpowered nine contract workers including the security guard before locking them in a room for hours. In the meantime, they collected costly copper windings, bars and other equipment from transformers.
IIC of Lahunipada police station Suraj Jhankar said the incident took place at the under-construction grid site of the Tata Power Western Odisha Distribution Ltd (TPWODL). One of the miscreants took off the shirt of a security personnel, wore it and stood guard at the entrance of the site to give an impression that everything was normal inside.
Jhankar said after locking the nine workers including the security guard in a room, the miscreants had a free run to loot copper windings and bars along with other valuable items of transformers worth about `95 lakh. The miscreants escaped in the pickup van with the booty towards Rourkela.
“A case has been registered in this connection. Police are trying to get footage of roadside CCTV cameras to get lead about the miscreants. Further investigation is underway,” the IIC added.