Police Crack ‘Kidnapping-Loot’ Of Loco Pilot With Arrest Of 3 From Bhubaneswar

Rourkela: Three persons have been arrested from Bhubaneswar in connection with the alleged kidnapping of a railway employee and Rs 1.70 lakh theft.

The accused have been identified as Sangram Keshari Patnaik alias Sonu (27), Smruti Ranjan Paikray alias Bubu (35), and Satya Prakash Pradhan alias Banty (27), all from the Airfield police station area in Bhubaneswar. They were produced before a court at Rourkela on Wednesday.

Nihar Sarkar (55), a loco pilot with the South Eastern Railway (SER), was allegedly kidnapped by three persons while taking a stroll near his house at Chhend Colony around 9.40 pm on June 22. The trio allegedly beat him, forcibly took his password for UPI mobile banking, his gold chain, and his wristwatch.

Briefing the media, Rourkela SP said that the three accused were acquaintances of Sarkar and they were all connected via a social media app. “One of the accused picked Sarkar in a car and drove him to the Balughat area, where the other two suspects were waiting. They assaulted Sarkar over a dispute and used PhonePe and PayTM to transfer about Rs 1.24 lakh from his bank account. They also took away his gold chain,” he said, without divulging the nature of the dispute.

He added that Rs 50,000 of the looted amount, a gold chain, and the car used in the crime were sized from the accused.