Amidst heavy security in Durgapur due to the presence of VVIPs for election campaigning, a group of burglars sneaked into two houses in the heart of the town and made off with 20 tollas of gold jewelry and Rs 1.70 lakh in cash overnight The Asansol Durgapur Police Commissionerate has obtained CCTV footage from one of the looted houses, but no significant progress has been made to trace the thieves, officials said.

The CCTV footage shows at least four individuals sneaking into the houses of Adhir Ghosh and his next door neighbour Runa Das on Street 23 of the Bengal Ambuja colony in the City Centre area at around 3:00 a.m. today. In both cases, they entered the houses after removing the iron window frames of vacant rooms. The family members of Mr Ghosh and Ms Das slept through the burglary in other rooms in their respective houses. “I realised something was highly wrong when I noticed in the morning that the room next to my bedroom was locked from inside, though no one was sleeping there,” said Mr Ghosh. He said: “I immediately went to call my neighbours but to my shock I saw the grill frame of the window of the Das family house had also been dismantled.”

Runa Das said: “We didn’t hear any noise. We found 6 tollas of gold jewellery and Rs 15,000 in cash missing.” The Ghosh family, meanwhile, found themselves poorer by 12 tollas of gold jewellery and Rs 1.55 lakh in cash. Mr Ghosh said: “We were confident that we were fully secure as the top ministers are staying in the city since over a week. But this Sunday morning ruined my faith on the city’s law and order situation.”

Abhishek Gupta, Deputy Commissioner of Police in Durgapur said: “We have already begun an intensive probe into the thefts.” Police raided Kalabagan slum, adjacent to City Centre in connection with the robberies. Incidentally, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal have been camping in two neighnouring hotels at City Centre itself. Union Home Minister Amit Shah is also scheduled to reach Durgapur this evening. “The police seem to have prioritised safety and security of the high-profile leaders and ministers and the entire force has been camping around the luxury hotels, leaving the local residents unguarded,” complained Debesh Chakraborty, Paschim Bardhaman district president of the Congress.