BHUBANESWAR: The Supreme Court's order on decongesting prisons amid the second wave of COVID-19 has put the Commissionerate Police in a quandary. The apex court, in its recent order, had stated that any person, involved in crimes for which the punishment is less than seven years of imprisonment, cannot be arrested unless necessary.
The order has come as a jolt to the police's efforts to curb instances of snatching, which have gone up significantly in the past few months in the city. A senior police officer said merely apprehending the offenders is not enough as many of them either walk out of jails easily and some are not even imprisoned and let off with a notice.
Most of the snatchers are being booked under section 379 of IPC for which the punishment is imprisonment for a term which may extend up to three years, he said. "Haryana had earlier made snatching with use of force a crime that is punishable by rigorous imprisonment of not less than 10 years. Odisha should also take similar steps to strictly deal with such anti-socials," the officer stated.
In its endeavour to curb crimes in the State capital, the Commissionerate police have arrested 23 anti-social elements under section 110 of CrPC and 357 for property offences in the last three months.
Stolen items including 433 gram gold ornaments, 18.8 kg silver, Rs 4.30 lakh in cash, 108 vehicles (two-wheelers, three-wheelers and four-wheelers), 460 mobile phones and other valuables were seized from the accused between March and May.
A senior police officer said, "One of our prime objectives is to check crimes like snatching, robbery and dacoity in the city."
He said as many as 60 sepoys and havildars of Special Security Battalion (SSB) were deputed to Bhubaneswar urban police district on February 28 this year. The personnel were imparted seven days special training to deal with such crimes.
They have now been attached to property offence prevention and detection (POPD) teams in each police station and are engaged in patrolling, collecting intelligence and tracking criminals. The personnel were also deployed at slums in the city to keep a vigil on anti-social elements.