Police bulldoze 8 shops owned by miscreants in 15 days

Bhubaneswar: After Uttar Pradesh government’s extensive bulldozer drive, authorities in Bhubaneswar razed eight shops of miscreants, involved in different crimes in the last fortnight. They were involved in group clash, drug peddling and burning of a vehicle.
Among these were shops belonging to four goons, whose makeshift shops were pulled down by an enforcement team of the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) at Delta Square under Khandagiri police limits on Tuesday.
The police drew the attention of the BDA to the unauthorized shops of Susil Kumar Barik, Biswajit Rout, Raja Pradhan and Sudhir Barik, who were arrested on Tuesday for indulging in a clash with some other men and setting fire to a SUV at Delta Square on Sunday night.
“We came to know that the four accused have set up roadside eateries without obtaining permission from the BMC and BDA. Many miscreeants often congregated at those shops, breached peace and tranquility and created nuisance at the public place. They picked up a fight with some men over some monetary dispute and set a SUV on fire,” said deputy commissioner of police Prateek Singh.
The DCP said the police did not just sit quiet by arresting the accused. “We immediately contacted the BDA to raze the unauthorized shops of the anti-socials. They had encroached upon government land and set up the shops. They had been planning and giving shape to their criminal activities from these shops,” Singh said.
Singh said they did not take a cue from UP government as similar punitive action was taken in Bhubaneswar in the past. Police said the grocery shop of a man, who was peddling brown sugar, was razed in the Nayapalli area a few days ago. Shop of an antisocial, who had been operating his crime empire and hidden firearms there in the Mancheswar area, was also demolished recently.
In November last year, houses of some criminals belonging KBN (koi bhai nehi) gang were partly razed by police in Nayapalli area during a search operation.
While the bulldozing action has gathered momentum against criminals in Bhubaneswar in the last few days, Odisha police demolished the house Subhransu Parida alias Chhota, a notorious mining mafia and drug smuggler, at Gurujang in Khurda district in July 2019 and Timan Kumbhar at Balangir in June 2019.