Home invasions rock Cuttack as armed gangs loot cash and jewellery worth over Rs 53 lakh
CUTTACK: Armed miscreants allegedly looted cash and jewellery worth over Rs 53 lakh in two separate robberies across Cuttack on Saturday night.
In the first incident, a gang of five looted cash, gold and silver ornaments worth Rs 53 lakh from the house of a jeweller at Hatiapalli under Kanpur police limits in Cuttack late on Saturday night.
According to the FIR lodged by the jeweller Kailash Chandra Prusty, the masked robbers broke open a window at the rear side of the house and entered around 2 am. Prusty, his wife and daughter were asleep at the time.
The robbers, wielding weapons including a pistol and knives, reportedly threatened Prusty and asked him to reveal where the cash and jewellery were kept. When he refused, they assaulted him and issued death threats, forcing him to show them a cupboard where ornaments worth about Rs 35 lakh and cash of Rs 18.4 lakh had been stored.
The robbers also snatched mobile phones and gold ornaments worn by Prusty and his wife before fleeing through the same entry point. Police reached the spot soon after being informed and launched an investigation with the help of a sniffer dog.
Kanpur IIC Tapan Nayak said, “We are collecting information from locals and verifying CCTV footage installed inside Prusty’s house.”
In a separate incident the same night, a group of around 15 armed robbers targeted three houses at Sauria village under Gurudijhatia police limits, looting Rs 16,000 cash and ornaments worth several lakhs and injuring one person.
The injured, Biswajit Jena (30), was reportedly assaulted when he protested while the robbers were looting his father Abhay Jena’s house. The gang later looted valuables from two neighbouring houses before fleeing.
Though police launched a search operation with a dog squad, no arrests had been made till the time of publishing the report. Locals blamed the rising incidents of robbery in the area on inadequate night patrolling.