Bhubaneswar: In a broad daylight robbery, an NRI (Non-Resident Indian), who landed at the Biju Patnaik International Airport from Ghana along with his family last Saturday, was allegedly robbed of cash and other valuables worth lakhs of rupees on the premises of the Airport.
As per a complaint lodged at the AirField police station, the family of NRI Neeraj Chandan was robbed of 3000 USD and several documents including nine passports belonging to his wife and two children. This apart, a non-citizen card and expensive mobile phones were also looted from them, the complaint added.
The family today showed a demo of the entire incident outside the Airport before catching its flight to New Delhi.
However, even after three days, the CISF and the AirField police have failed to arrest the robbers. Neeraj stated, “The flight landed at 8:30 AM and we were at the exit gate No.1 at around 8:40AM. My friend’s wife was waiting outside the gate to receive us. I had kept the handbag above the trolley. I just turned back to do Namaste and in a fraction of a second my bag was stolen.”
“When I filed a complaint, they asked me to simply write it as misplaced. But I wrote stolen. We had come here to get a glimpse of Lord Jagannath in Puri. We have lost everything and are helpless now,” he added.
His wife alleged, “We were in the parking area only and there are cameras installed. But they are saying, they have the footage till our bags were there. How can it be possible with two to three CCTVs around? Till now they have no information. They should help us in this situation.”
Meanwhile, based on the CCTV footage, police suspect a lady behind the theft.
Odisha DGP RP Sharma informed that the DCP and AirField Police have been directed to do a detailed investigation into the case.
On the other hand, Suresh Kumar Hota, Director, BPI Airport said, “We have CCTV recordings and we will definitely co-operate with the investigative agency with whatever support they need.”
Prasanta Patnaik