BHUBANESWAR: Taking advantage of lockdown hours, bike-borne miscreants robbed a retired IAS officer who was taking his evening walk near the posh Forest Park on Tuesday.
The area where Bhaskar Chandra Patnaik stays is home to ministers and senior bureaucrats. Three bike-borne criminals came, snatched his phone and sped away on their bike.
“The phone’s last location, seen at around 5.40 pm, was near an alcohol outlet on the main road from Rajmahal Square to Sishu Bhawan,” said the former bureaucrat’s son Rabindra who lodged a complaint with Capital police station.
Locals said a PCR van used to remain stationed near Biju Patnaik Park during morning and evening hours. Since the park is now closed due to the pandemic, the van is nowhere to be found. The incident comes days after five anti-socials snatched gold chain from a retired district judge in Mali Sahi locality on July 21. Bhubaneswar has been witness to a spurt in robbery. While 193 such cases were reported from the city in 2017, it went up to 266 in 2019 and 330 till November last year.