In an exemplary example of honesty, localites from Gambhari in Puri district had handed over 50 stolen motorbikes to the local police. The returned bikes are stated to be worth over Rs. 20 Lakhs. As a token of appreciation, DGP Sanjeev Marik has reportedly handed about Rs 50,000 as cash reward to the village committee. Commending on their good work, DGP Marik said, “The villagers set an example by handing over the stolen bikes to us on the intervention of the committee. We reciprocated by rewarding them.”
It has been learnt that villagers from Gambhari were unaware of the fact that the bikes were stolen and got to know about them during recent vehicle checking drive undertaken by the police in the village. Elaborating on the situation, outgoing SP (Puri) Anup Kumar Sahoo, said, “We approached the village committee and sought its help to recover the motorcycles. So far we have not got any clue of complicity of any villager in the bike theft racket.” The bikes reportedly were stolen from neighboring districts like Puri, Bhubaneswar and Cuttack.
Police has refrained from taking stern action against the localites keeping in-view past conflicts that have resulted in explosions and exchange of fire between rival political activists in the village. Back then even some police personnels were reportedly injured in the incident. In order to maintain peace and encourage locals to help the Police they had offered the cash reward to the village committee. Sahoo further added, “Since so many people of the village had been using stolen bikes, they must have known the seller. We have also started the process of identifying real owners of the bikes.”
Source: TOI
