ROURKELA: Rourkela and some parts of Sundagarh city are witnessing a spurt in firing incidents. Easy availability of locally-made firearms in adjacent Jharkhand is being stated as the reason. On Friday night, a Congress follower Peter Xess (40) received bullet injury after unidentified miscreants opened fire at him near Patalkand under Birmitrapur police limits, about 30 km from here. Three days back, a transporter Antaryami Das was shot at near the RN Pali police station here over past enmity. Sources said in the last two years, the firing incidents for loot or to settle personal scores have spiralled. In March 2010, former chairman of Rourkela Municipality Narendra Tripathy was injured in firing. In the last one year, at least four persons were killed in loot-related firing incidents at Rourkela, Rajgangpur and Kuanrmunda, while one person was killed over personal disputes at Vedvyas here. Police blamed it on free access to firearms. Superintendent of Railway Police RK Panda said criminals based in Gumla, Ranchi and Simdega districts in Jharkhand are mainly responsible for this. He added that in these areas, firearms manufacturing has assumed the dimension of a cottage industry. “The remedy lies in effective curbing of firearms flow and tracing criminals in the garb of floating population,” he said. In Jharkhand, a single shot pistol costs a maximum of Rs. 1,000 while six round revolver is available for Rs. 3,000. After a crime, the miscreants usually take the Birmitrapur, Hathibari or Bisra route which barely takes 30 minutes to reach the safe forested areas in Jharkhand. DIG (WR) YK Jethwa said the local police have achieved success in nabbing some dreaded criminals and efforts are on to stop infiltration of criminals and prevent inflow of illegal firearms.
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