Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, Sept 17: A BTech student from a city engineering college had a horrific experience in the wee hours of Thursday near a puja pandal in Kharvelnagar when he was chased by a gang of criminals, who attacked him and robbed him of his gold chain and bracelet.
Little did Amit Samantray, an engineering student of Oxford College of Engineering and Management (OCEM), know that a regular bout of hanging out with his friends outdoors could end up in danger. According to a complaint he lodged at Sahid Nagar police station, Samantray was chased by a gang of criminals when he was sitting at a puja pandal near Monginis at Kharvelnagar.
Samantray said he and about six of his friends and classmates were sitting and having some snacks late Wednesday night expecting to see the Ganesh idol being set up at the pandal. After midnight, his friends left for home barring one, with whom he continued talking at the site.
“At around 3 am, two men approached us and tried to snatch away my gold chain and bracelet. As I resisted, a fight broke out between us,” said Samantray. Around 10 other men reached the spot on bikes and overpowered him, he said. By that time, his friend had fled the scene in fear. When Samantray hurriedly got into his car trying to escape to safety, one of the miscreants hit him with a rod on his head.
As he drove on in panic, Samantray was chased by all the miscreants and he ran his car into a traffic post and hurt himself. A PCR van that came by after the miscreants fled took him to Capital Hospital, said Samantray in his complaint to police.
Sahid Nagar police said one of the miscreants who attacked Samantray has been identified as Suman Pradhan, 24, a resident of Sahid Nagar. Pradhan is already wanted in several cases of crime in the city, said police. Efforts are on to identify and nab all the miscreants and recover Samantray’s gold chain and bracelet, said a police official, adding that the gang of miscreants may have had some criminals.
