The Madhya Pradesh police have alerted their counterparts in Rajasthan about pickpockets targeting people participating in the Congress's 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' led by party leader Rahul Gandhi, an official said on Sunday. According to the police, pickpockets had struck rich during the last stretch of the yatra in Madhya Pradesh at Agar Malwa district.
“We have caught eight to 10 pickpockets, some of them hailing from Kota and Jhalawar in Rajasthan and some from Guna, Rajgarh, Shajapur and Raisen districts of Madhya Pradesh,” Agar Malwa superintendent of police Rakesh Kumar Sagar told PTI. The state police have written to the Rajasthan police to be 'watchful' of pickpockets during the yatra, he said. The yatra entered Rajasthan from Madhya Pradesh on December 5.
It has covered Jhalawar and Kota districts before reaching Bundi and will proceed to Sawai Madhopur, Dausa and Alwar districts. The march will cover about 500 km over 17 days in Rajasthan before entering Haryana on December 21. “We have recovered five to six mobile phones among other things which the accused had stolen during the yatra in Agar Malwa,” the official said, adding that the cyber police have also been roped in.
At least four to five people who participated in the yatra have complained that they had lost their valuables, he said. The thefts mostly took place when lunch and dinner were served at the camps of the yatra, the official said. A local Congress leader has complained that he had lost two mobile phones during the march, he said.
“We have been requesting people who have lost mobile phones to get their SIMs blocked so that when thieves insert new SIMs in these gadgets, we will be able to track them down,” the official said. A Congress leader, who walked with Gandhi from Burhanpur to Agar Malwa, on the condition of anonymity claimed that he had lost a mobile phone worth Rs 28,000.
Mahesh Sharma, a local journalist from Agar Malwa who covered the march, alleged that more than 100 people had lost their belongings while participating in the yatra, but only a handful of them have come forward to lodge complaints with the police. The yatra was in Agar Malwa for three days and two nights, which was the longest duration in Madhya Pradesh, the SP said.