PRATIK PARAB
pratik@herald-goa.com
Gone are the days when big house burglaries made headlines. There are big burglaries every week now with no headway in detection of these robberies. All the attempts of the under staffed and overburdened police to curb the robberies have failed. The Margao Town Police station has been kept on its toes due to the spate of robberies all over the town. Robbers entering the houses by cutting locks of grill doors and windows and breaking the main door has been looking like a child’s play now with police being left red faced.
The pattern of robberies, especially the number of houses burgled at a time, the tools and the methods used for the robbery has been almost the same in the several robberies all over Margao and Fatorda. Flats of Marta Pereira, Elvira Lopes D’souza and a flat owned by a Bank were broken open by robbers on Sunday night. The robbers have decamped with watches and small gold ornaments from the flat of Marta Pereira. The robbers did not find any valuables in the other two flats. The residents, however, say that they do not feel secure in their homes any more.
Marta Pereira, while speaking to reporters, said “We have shifted to our bungalow nearby and don’t come to the flat frequently. This pattern is known to the person who has done the robbery and we think that they know the residents too. Police need to double up their security as we don’t feel secure at our homes anymore.”
It has been observed by the police in the past that the robbers have gone one step ahead in leaving literally no trail of the robbery and the same happened in the J.G Apartments. The robbers have put their minds to the robbery and have a fail proof system. According to the neighbours, the robbers before breaking into the house, latched and locked doors of the neighbours and then executed the crime.
A fabricator living in the same building said “We know how strong the door and grill door locks are. But we are surprised how these too were broken without any sound. This calls for stepping up of security around buildings and residences in Margao.”
The residents of the building said that there must be an insider leaking information of the families in the building because they said that the robbery has happened just when most of the families were not around.
“The police has to do something regarding this spate of the robberies. We have installed CCTV cameras in the building. But we still wonder if the cameras capture the robbers”, said Marta.
Doubting this to be an insider job the residents of these buildings of Aquem have also called on other families in buildings to stay alert on any new unknown faces and also take all the details of persons working as maids or cleaners in their Building.
Hoping to make a breakthrough in the number of house breaking cases reported in its jurisdiction in recent times, the Margao Town Police interrogated one Ashok Singh, a suspected “chaddi gang” member, for several days, after his arrest.
The Police Inspector of Margao C.L Patil has earlier informed that the “chaddi gang” is so called because gang members only wear shorts and are armed with knives, chilly spray and stones which they use against whoever dares to follow them. The gang has been active in the town for the last nearly three years.
He said they usually come from outside the state by train in the early hours at around 4 am and scout well the area they want to commit their crime in. They normally sit out in open spaces preferring fields and have a drink in the night to observe when people go to bed.
The pattern of pelting stones at the windows to find out if the people are fast asleep and only then breaking in the house mostly unoccupied has been common for the robberies in Aquem, Fatorda, Margao, Pedda and others and the robbery that happened on Monday.
The Police inspector C.L Patil while discussing their course of investigation said, “This is a gang well organised and operating completely under cover. The robberies have risen when there are Feasts or Jatras around the towns of Goa. The police doubt that the robbers are the husbands of the women roaming around at feasts and jatras selling balloons and other miscellaneous items and people need to be alert whenever they see such persons in residential locales.”
The Margao town police which has a huge jurisdiction has also been suffering of staff shortage and are overburdened with other works. The Fatorda MLA and TCP Minister Vijai Sardesai has earlier pressed for the demand of a separate police station for Fatorda and has claimed that it will happen soon. However, the police have an uphill task to keep the robbers and the robberies at bay until they are strengthened with staff.
