5 Held For Burglary At Ex-Olympian’s Bhubaneswar Residence; Medals & Valuables Recovered

Bhubaneswar: The Twin City Commissionerate Police have arrested five persons for the alleged loot of medals and valuables from the residence of former Indian hockey captain Prabodh Tirkey at Unit-VI in Odisha capital.

The arrested have been identified as Chitta Ranjan Dalei (30), Sukant Nayak (34), Milu Behera (39), Ganga Reddy (30) and Rajka Mahalik (20) of Cuttack, the receiver of the goods. Fourteen medals, gold ornaments, a camera, two mobile phones and an LED TV have been recovered from their possession.

On January 21, Prabodh lodged a complaint with the Capital police through a relative about medals and other valuables being stolen from his government quarter in Bhubaneswar. The miscreants had decamped with medals, a 55-inch smart TV, gold ornaments including two chains, a ring and other jewellery worth around Rs 1 lakh from his residence the previous night.

The yellow he won for the FIH Men’s Hockey Junior World Cup in Australia in 2001, a bronze medal he secured in the Asian Games in 2010 in China, a silver medal in the Commonwealth Games at New Delhi and other prizes were stolen.

The former international hockey player came to know about the burglary from his caretaker. He was in Rourkela to attend one of the ongoing HWC matches when the incident took place while his family members were in his native village in Sundargarh. Prabodh, the younger brother of former hockey player Ignace Tirkey, stays in the quarters along with his parents and his brother’s two daughters.

According to police, more than 100 cases are pending against the accused at various police stations in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack. They had been conducting a recce to identify possible targets after being released from jail.