Cop’s jewellery, cash worth ₹11L go missing from thana

Kota: Gold jewellery and cash totalling worth over Rs 11 lakh kept in a double-locked cupboard in a room at Gumanpura police station in Kota city three months ago have gone missing, according to a complaint lodged at the same police station by a sub-inspector who is the owner of the missing valuables.
While the cupboard was being guarded by a duty officer and a constable round the clock, the sub-inspector, Ramkaran Nagar, found his valuables missing when he unlocked it on July 16, a fortnight before his retirement date. Since no outsider was supposed to enter the room, he tried to find his missing valuables through inquiry among his colleagues. But when his efforts yielded no results, he lodged a complaint in this connection at the police station on Wednesday night, naming ten cops who were on duty in rounds there as suspects.
It was not easy for Nagar to lodge a complaint at his own police station. He has alleged that he had a hard time trying to do so for 45 days as the circle inspector there forced him to remove the names of the suspected cops from his report. He even wrote to the IGP, Kota, and other senior officials, but they ignored his grievance, he alleged. It was only after Nagar contacted the local media that his report was lodged at the police station on Wednesday night, he said.
In his complaint, Nagar says that his wife Mangidevi died of Covid-19 last year and that in April this year he kept her gold jewellery worth Rs 9.85 lakh and cash of Rs 1.50 lakh in the cupboard at the police station and double-locked it. He says he had taken these valuables out of his house to keep them in a bank locker but could not find time to do so. With his retirement date scheduled for July 31, he opened the cupboard’s locks on July 16 to take possession of the valuables but found them missing, he said in his complaint. Another sub-inspector at the police station said initially it was believed to be a prank by Nagar’s colleagues. “Senior officials also held meetings at the police station and requested the staff to come out with the gold jewellery and cash, but nothing emerged out of that,” he added.
The DSP and CO of the area, Ankit Jain, and Gumanpura police station CI Mukesh Meena refuted Nagar’s allegations of obstructions in lodging a complaint.
“The matter came to our knowledge only after SI Ramkaran Nagar submitted the report on Wednesday night. A case has been lodged and further investigation are on. The matter has been forwarded to the circle inspector at Vigyan Nagar, Devesh Bhardwaj,” said CO Ankit Jain.