Ujjain (Madhya Pradesh): Be it the colonies or shops adjacent to the outskirts of the city or posh houses in crowded markets, gangs of thieves are committing crimes every day. Miscreants are taking advantage of the lack of promptness in night patrolling by the police who depend solely on CCTV footage. In posh area in Freeganj, thieves broke half a dozen locks in the third-floor house of a dentist in the wee hours on Monday.
Dr Vaibhav son of Santosh Jain, resident of Kamla Nehru Marg, Freeganj, had gone to Patharia (Jhansi) on a pilgrimage with his family. He was informed by the family members at 11.30 am on Monday that there had been a theft in the house. Dr Jain said that there are shops and clinics on the ground and first floor of the four-storey building. Bank and other offices are on the second floor. The house is on the third floor where the family lives. There is only one way to go up to the third floor, where there are shutters and channels at the entry. The incident is visible in the CCTV footage at 4.20 am.
Two miscreants wearing caps and their faces covered with cloth broke the latch and lock of the channel with an iron rod. They then entered the house by breaking three locks while passing through the second floor. Here they broke the Godrej lock with rod and stole the gold and silver jewellery kept in it. Later, they opened the wooden cupboard kept in the other room with the key and stole Rs 15,000 in cash and other jewellery. The miscreants also stole 6 small and big idols of Ashtadhatu kept in the temple and at 5.40 am they were seen going back through the stairs.
Dr Jain said that when Shravan, an employee of the shop located on the ground floor, saw the lock broken, he went up to the third floor where he saw that the door of the house was open and the locks were broken. He informed the relatives living nearby. Dr Jain said that leaving the pilgrimage in the middle, he returned home and examined the stolen gold-silver ornaments and idols and other items. Fingerprint experts also visited the site. One of the miscreants who carried out the theft incident in the house for more than an hour came up to the first floor thrice during this time and returned after checking the shutters and channels. Both the miscreants had scattered all the household items.
