Five high-value air quality monitoring ma chines, worth approximate ly Rs 16 lakh, were stolen from the terrace facility of the Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB) at Baina, Mormugao. The specialised equip ment was installed at the Mormugao Port Authority (MPA) staff quarters, locat ed near Ravindra Bhavan. According to law enforce ment authorities, the tar geted break-in and theft took place sometime be tween May 15 and May 20. The theft came to light after Anthony Miranda, a Junior Laboratory Assis tant with the GSPCB, dis covered the burglary and approached local authori ties. Investigating officers revealed that the culprits explicitly targeted the spe cialised setup installed on the building’s terrace. The thieves managed to scale the building and broke open a heavy security lock on the terrace door to gain direct access to the sensi tive scientific hardware.
The stolen hardware consists of high-end envi ronmental infrastructure used to monitor regional industrial and coastal air safety. The missing equip ment includes two respira ble dust samplers designed to trap and measure haz ardous, fine airborne dust components and three fine particulate samplers used to calculate regional par ticulate matter (PM) con centrations and generate the local Air Quality Index (AQI). The loss of these ma chines is expected to tem porarily hinder the pollu tion board’s ability to track emission levels around the busy port hub. The Mormugao Police has registered a criminal case under First Informa tion Report.
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Since the inci dent took place under the updated penal framework, the case has been filed un der criminal trespass and theft provisions—specifi cally Sections 303(2) and 331(4) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023. The active investigation is being spearheaded by PSI Stanley Gomes, under the supervision of PI Sheriff Jacques and DySP Gurudas Kadam. A team is auditing CCTV footage in the Bai na vicinity and reviewing security logs at the MPA quarters to identify the perpetrators.
