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Updated: May 22, 2019 08:11 IST

For nearly one-and-a-half days, officers at the Sahibabad police station had no clue that a gang of thieves had struck their own station complex and fled with a lot of items from their malkhana (storehouse for case properties) at the police station premises.

Two women have been arrested in the case. According to the complaint, the thieves struck the police station complex on the intervening night of May 18 and 19.

The list of items stolen from the Sahibabad police station’s malkhana includes 90 big and small sized batteries, two gas cylinders, seized mobile phones, four high definition CCTVS, one “jugaad” vehicle (operated by an old scooter engine with a trolley mounted on it) and accessories from Hyundai Accent and Honda City cars parked at the complex, the complaint said.

The in-charge of the store came to know about the incident on the morning of May 20 when he saw that the lock of the malkhana was broken and informed a constable who was offering prayers at a temple in the police station complex and the local gardener.

“When we opened the door, we found some items missing. The complete list of missing items will be provided after tallying with the register. The thieves took items from the malkhana on the intervening night of May 18 and 19,” the complaint given by police personnel said.

Police officers later filed a formal complaint at Sahibabad police station at 2.55pm on Monday and an FIR was registered under sections of 380 (theft in dwelling house, etc) and 457 (lurking house trespass or housebreaking by night in order to commit offence) of the Indian Penal Code.

Senior police officers said they were aware of the theft and that two women were arrested in connection with the case.

“Two women were arrested in connection of thefts and some of the items were also recovered. We will make more inquiries and probably more people could be behind the incident. They may have stolen the items over a period of time. Some digging work was going on at the main entrance of the police station and a side entry was opened. It is possible that the items were taken away from the side entry. We have a depleted workforce as many personnel are away on election duties,” Dr Rakesh Mishra, circle officer (Sahibabad), said.

Instances of thefts are a common feature in Ghaziabad. Instances wherein vehicles parked outside police stations as case properties are stolen are often reported.

According to the official figures, about 167, 159 and 138 cases of burglaries took place during 2018, 2017 and 2016, respectively. The other thefts number 4,253, 4,304 and 4,249 during the years 2018, 2017 and 2016, respectively, as per the figures..

“We are investigating the incident of theft at the police station and some suspects have been arrested. Since the start of the election exercise, we have been managing with only about

30% of our strength. Now the elections are over and our personnel have returned from duties,” Upendra Kumar Agrawal, deputy inspector general (Ghaziabad), said.