Berhampur: Former Deputy Speaker of Odisha Legislative Assembly Rama Chandra Panda was all smiles on Monday as he got back gold snatched by miscreants from his wife in Maharashtra almost two decades back.
A two-member team of the Government Railway Police (GRP) from Kurduwadi Railway Station in Maharashtra handed him over the stolen gold ‘mangalsutra’ weighing about 1 gram and 600 milligrams worth Rs 10,000, albeit in a moulded form, at his Gandhi Nagar residence in Berhampur.
Miscreants had snatched the ‘mangalsutra’ of Panda’s wife Sushama at Kurduwadi Railway Station in Maharashtra on December 20, 2005 when Panda and his wife were going to Pune by the Bhubaneswar-Mumbai Konark Express. Panda had complained to the railway police in Maharashtra, alleging that his wife’s ‘mangalsutra’ was snatched by some miscreants inside the train when it was moving slowly. Police recorded his statement on March 7, 2006 and started an investigation.
According to a GRP personnel, acting on Panda’s complaint, a probe began and police had arrested a chain-snatcher from Solapur on March 20, 2006. He was allegedly involved in a series of snatching cases inside trains. The gold ornament was recovered in a moulded form from a goldsmith. After completing all the legal procedures, the police had on May 20, 2011 asked Panda to collect the snatched gold from Kurduwadi railway police station. Panda, however, refused to travel so far to get back the gold. He had requested the police to hand it over to the Maharashtra government.
“We came here to hand over the recovered gold to Panda, as per the directions of our higher-ups, after consulting with him about his availability at his house,” Shinde Yashwant Dagadu, one of the policemen who visited his residence, said.
Panda thanked the GRP personnel from Maharashtra for recovering the snatched gold ornament and returning it to the rightful owner. “The value of the ornament might be small, but this gesture shows their accountability. It will strengthen the common man’s faith in the police,” Panda said.
