JORHAT, June 10 - Criminals seem to be having a free run in Jorhat in recent months with burglaries, snatchings and vehicle lifting taking place simultaneously every week.
On Saturday night, thieves burgled three houses in the Rajahowly area of Baligaon here and decamped with a scooty, gold jewellery and Rs 6 lakh in cash after breaking steel almirahs.
According to a police source, thieves broke into the houses of Mantu Kalita, Prasanta Neog and Monoram Tanti and decamped with gold ornaments and cash from each house.
A scooty (TVS Jupiter) belonging to Kalita was also stolen, the source said.
Neog reportedly told police that thieves stole Rs 6 lakh, which was the money he had received after selling his old car and from earnings of his shop. He reportedly could not deposit the money as Saturday was a bank holiday. Neog was planning to buy a new car, the source stated.
It may be mentioned here that the burglars could have taken advantage of a bhaona being performed in the village naamghar with almost all the people from the area visiting the prayer house and watching the function.
On the night of May 31, the rented house of Suraj Prasad, a journalist of a Hindi newspaper was broken into at the upscale Sonari Gaon area and cash, jewellery and his Activa scooty, which he had parked inside his house, were stolen. Prasad and his family reportedly had left for Tinsukia to attend an NRC hearing.
It may be mentioned here that during the last fortnight a jewellery shop, a gold smelting shop and an astrologer�s chamber were broken into and gold and cash looted by thieves.
During the same period, an Enfield motorcycle of a businessman was stolen from his residence at Dohaborachuk locality, another TVS motorcycle belonging to a student of Polytechnic Institute, who was staying as a PG at Dewal Road here was lifted.
During the past five months, there has been a sharp increase in incidents of thefts in shops, lifting of vehicles along with incidents of snatching bags containing cash and also mobile handsets from pedestrians and pillion-riders by motorcycle-borne youths in and around the town.
