Bhubaneswar police have arrested an Ola cab driver accused of fleeing with valuables worth over ₹20 lakh belonging to a passenger. The incident occurred on the night of January 7.
The accused has been identified as Nageshwar Pramanik, a resident of Kuanpal village in Mahanga police station area of Cuttack district.
Addressing the media, Assistant Commissioner of Police Sonali Singh Parmar stated that a written complaint regarding the case was received at Chandrasekharpur police station on Wednesday.
The complaint was filed by businessman Aman Kumar Agrawal, a resident of Sector 9, Cuttack. According to him, he arrived at Biju Patnaik International Airport in Bhubaneswar on Tuesday late evening from Thailand. He then booked an Ola cab, driven by Pramanik, to reach home.
During the ride, Agrawal spoke on the phone with his wife and inadvertently mentioned the valuable gifts he had brought from Thailand. Police said the driver overheard the conversation and allegedly planned to steal the items.
While en route, the accused asked the passenger to get down near Patia under some pretext. After Agrawal exited the vehicle, Pramanik reportedly fled with the valuables, cash, and foreign currency.
The stolen items include a gold chain, a gold bracelet, three gold rings with gemstones, diamond earrings, a smartwatch, approximately ₹1 lakh in Indian currency, around 50,000 Thai baht, the complainant’s passport, a wallet containing 10-12 credit and debit cards, and other personal belongings. The total estimated value is about ₹20 lakh.
Following the complaint, police registered a case and launched a search operation to locate the accused.
Pramanik was arrested on Thursday and produced before the court, which remanded him to judicial custody.
During the investigation, police also discovered that the accused is allegedly involved in four other criminal cases registered at different police stations.
