JEYPORE: Narayanapatna IIC Ranjit Sahu has been placed under suspension for reportedly shielding the accused of 1.61 kg mortgaged gold ornaments theft from the lockers of SBI’s Laxmipur SBI branch in November last year.
Police sources said the IIC knew the accused but did not initiate any action against him. Instead, he allegedly helped him remain elusive from the clutches of police. After the embarassing fact came to fore during a probe, DGP SK Bansal on Wednesday suspended Sahu.
Earlier in January, Laxmipur police had arrested prime accused Sekhar Kuldipiya (43) and receiver of the stolen ornaments M Mauli of Narayanpatna. While police seized stolen ornaments weighing 1.189 kg from Kuldipiya’s possession, another 417 gm was recovered from Mauli.
Sekhar worked as a messenger in SBI, Laxmipur from 2014 to 2020 before being removed from his job for misconduct. As Sekhar was closely involved in bank affairs, he knew about the mortgaged gold ornaments of customers kept in the lockers of the strong room.
On November 30 last year, he went to the bank during business hours and hid in an unused room. After the bank closed, he took the keys of the lockers from the branch manager’s office and removed gold ornaments kept in 21 packets. After committing the theft, Sekhar again confined himself in the room. After the branch opened the next day, he quietly came out of the room and walked out of the bank by dodging other employees.
The theft went unnoticed for many days. When the bank officials found out about missing ornaments, branch manager Sudhansu Sekhar Rout lodged a complaint with Laxmipur police in this regard on January 14 this year.
Basing on the complaint, a police team led by Laxmipur IIC Swetapadma Seth scanned footage of a CCTV camera installed on the bank premises and arrested Sekhar. Mauli, who is a jeweller, was arrested several days later.
During investigation, it was found that the Narayanapatna IIC was aware of the crime committed by the accused but didn’t take any action. After getting concrete evidence about Sahu’s involvement in the case, senior police officers of Koraput recommended the DGP to take action against the IIC.
Koraput SP V Guntupalli said the Narayanapatna IIC has been suspended on charges of dereliction of duty. Besides, the DGP had ordered to initiate departmental proceeding against him for his role in helping the receiver of the stolen gold ornaments to abscond.