Thief breaches 'security' at MP's home, claims he sneaked in to steal papayas

An unidentified man managed to sneak into the residence of a Lok Sabha MP and also succeeded in fleeing from the place after being caught by the staff, raising concerns about the state of security provided to the parliamentarians at the heart of the capital, in the Lutyens’ Zone.

On Friday evening, a man entered through the unmanned gate of the official bungalow of Arjun Charan Sethi, an MP from Odisha’s Bhadrak district on Pandit Ravi Shankar Shukla lane and was trying to get into the house through a window.

A staff member’s son spotted the man hanging on to a window, trying to unbolt it from outside, police said.

The boy raised an alarm, after which the staff rushed there and caught the alleged thief — who is said to be in his mid-twenties.

On asking about his intentions, the man said  he wanted to pluck papayas from the trees growing in the compound of the bungalow, police said.

The staff members were still questioning him about his identity, when suddenly, he shoved one of them and escaped from the premises through the same unmanned gate from where he had entered, a police officer investigating the case said.

A police officer believed that the person didn’t enter into the bungalow to steal papayas, as according to him there are no papaya on trees these days.

“He might have entered to steal something as the gate was unmanned,” the police officer added.

An FIR of attempt to theft (511 IPC) has been registered at Tilak Marg police station.

Since the compound has no CCTV cameras, police are trying to draw a sketch of the person through the description provided by the staff.

Last year also, in a somewhat similar case, two jackfruits were stolen from the official residence of a Rajya Sabha MP.

However, this case could be termed more serious as the alleged thief was trying to enter into the house itself and had almost managed to sneak in.