The Panaji city police have arrested 12 pickpockets and a chain snatcher over the last 24 hours in the city after several wallets, mobiles were reported stolen and a chain snatched, during the funeral procession of late Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar on Monday.
An official at the city police station said that in all, 32 complaints of thefts of various articles had been reported to the police on Monday, during and after the funeral procession, taking advantage of the fact that thousands of people flocked to the city and took part in the funeral procession of Chief Minister and former Defence Minister throughout the day on Monday.
According to Panaji police, two gangs of thieves from Karnataka and Maharashtra specialising in pick-pocketing and such petty crimes had arrived in Goa on Monday. Huge crowds had gathered at State BJP headquarters earlier in the day where Mr. Parrikar’s mortal remains were kept. Later they were taken to Kala Academy again with big crowd accompanying the procession. Again later in the evening funeral procession from Kala Academy to Miramar beach had huge crowd had lined up on the roads and gathered at Miramar beach but a large number of people, including ladies walked all the way from Kala Academy to Miramar.
“They had specifically come to Panaji because of the “major event” in order to commit theft,” Police Inspector Sudesh Naik of Panaji police Station said.
Mr. Naik said that 12 accused had been arrested so far, while the police were on the look-out for other members of the inter-State gangs.