Snatchers decamp with gold ornaments worth lakhs from cop’s mom & store

Bhubaneswar: Snatchers struck twice in the city on Tuesday, decamping with gold ornaments worth lakhs from an elderly woman and a jewellery store within a few hours of each other, leaving residents shaken and police searching for clues.In the first incident, septuagenarian Sakuntala Mohanty, mother of a police officer, was targeted during her morning walk in Sailashree Vihar. Around 9 am, two bike-borne miscreants wearing masks slowed the vehicle near her and snatched her gold chain worth nearly Rs 3 lakh. Mohanty, still trembling from the snatching, recounted how she raised an alarm but found herself alone on a desolate street. "I am feeling very unsafe. I never imagined that I would be a victim of snatching," the 76-year-old woman said, describing the fear after the sudden attack. The crime came close on the heels of another snatching inicident in Nayapalli on Feb 4, where an armed miscreant robbed an elderly woman of her earrings and bangles at gunpoint.Barely hours after Mohanty's ordeal, another brazen robbery unfolded in Kalinga Vihar under Tamando police station limits. A masked man entered a jewellery store around 1 pm, posing as a customer looking for ornaments for his sister's wedding. As store owner Bijay Barik calculated the price of a gold chain and rings, the miscreant sprayed pepper in his eyes and fled with jewellery worth over Rs 6 lakh. CCTV footage captured the sequence, showing the criminal's calculated deception before a swift escape. "He asked for ornaments, and when I was busy with the bill, he attacked me and ran away," Barik said, still shaken by the incident.The twin snatching incidents have sparked safety concerns in the city, especially during the ongoing assembly session. Investigators have begun examining CCTV footage from both localities to trace the culprits. Senior police officers suspect the involvement of separate gangs, given the different modus operandi. "We are analysing the crime pattern and looking for leads," a senior police officer stated.