Odisha: Senior Citizens On Looters' Target In Twin City

Bhubaneswar: Yet again, senior citizens have become soft targets of looters in the twin city with miscreants allegedly robbing gold ornaments from an elderly couple at Patia in the Smart City on Monday.

As per reports, Bibhuti Bhusan Acharya and Vijay Laxmi were returning home from an evening walk when two youths intercepted them near Swarnapuri road. They identified themselves as Crime Branch officials and advised the couple to take off gold ornaments citing that some gangs are on a looting spree in the area.

When the duo removed their ornaments, the robbers took the jewellery from them and wrapped it in a piece of paper and a handkerchief and handed it back to the couple.

However, Bibhuti found only pieces of stones when he checked the handkerchief after returning home. "I felt suspicious and checked the handkerchief only to find stones. They exchanged the gold with stone and handed her over the wrapping," he alleged.

Meanwhile, Bhubaneswar DCP Uma Shankar Das said that similar incidents of loot have been reported from Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Puri, Rourkela, and Berhampur in the last couple of years. He said that the miscreants are from other states and they often impersonate themselves as police or CBI officials and target senior citizens.

"There is a specific group, which comes from outside Odisha. We are investigating the cases and appeal people to remain alert and inform police in case any person asks to take off jewellery because cops never ask for it," Das added.