Hojai
Representative image.

Jorhat superintendent of police Vaibhav Nimbalkar on Thursday directed additional SP (Headquarter) Prakash Sonowal to inquire into allegations that police are in nexus with thieves and submit a report in this regard within one week.

The directive comes in the wake of submission of a memorandum by Md Ajijur Rahman and others to the SP on Wednesday wherein it was alleged that police had let off a thief with all the valuables looted from four houses at the Rajahowly Baligaon area on June 8 night.

But the police produced only three of the thieves and recovered one gold necklace.

About 200 people of the area had undertaken a massive protest and gheraoed the SP’s office on Wednesday against inaction in arresting the main thief, who had reportedly managed to give the police the slip.

The SP has also directed Prakash Sonowal to investigate into four burglary cases (Nos: 1408/19, 1409/19, 1410/19 and 1413/19) all registered under sections 487/380 of the IPC.

The residents of Rajahowly Baligaon, who filed complaints were Lohit Neog, Manoram Tanti, Mantu  Kalita and Bhaben Barkataki, whose houses were looted on the night of June 8.

The residents had complained that seven sets of gold jewellery, Rs 5.5 lakh in cash, a scooty and other valuables were stolen when most of the residents had gone to watch the performance of a bhaona at the naamghar in the locality.

Meanwhile, a report has come in stating that Rs 4 lakh was stolen from an employee of a shop in the Old Balibat area.

According to a police source, an employee of a local businessman, Inder Gattani, had withdrawn Rs 4 lakh  from the Allahabad Bank at Gar-Ali locality as per Gattani’s instruction.

The employee, Rakesh Rajak, then reportedly felt an itching sensation on his back after someone threw some powder on him.

The source stated that Rajak then reached the nearby Old Balibat area and entered a shop named Roop Milan,  the shop owner is reportedly a relative of Gattani,  to keep the bag and get his back scratched.

As Rajak kept the bag on the floor and attended to his itching, then suddenly a youth rushed into the shop and grabbed the bag of cash and ran away with it, the source said.

By the time Rajak raised an alarm the youth was seen joining a man wearing a full-mask helmet on a motorbike.

The duo immediately sped away in a motorcycle.

In the meantime, a series of photos of a group of children bathing in the Dholli river at Panisokuwa here are seen pulling out a 500 CC Bullet motorcycle from out of the river has been uploaded on Facebook by Mintu Dutta.

Two Bullet motorcycles have been stolen from different parts of Jorhat in the past month.

In the past four months, Jorhat has witnessed a series of snatchings, two-wheeler thefts and burglaries of shops and residents indicating a deteriorating law and order situation.

In January, the police had installed 32 CCTVs in various parts of the town in order to secure the lives and property of the people here.

Smita Bhattacharyya is Northeast Now Correspondent in Jorhat. She can be reached at: [email protected]