PANAJI: With a rise in number of thefts in Goa and a low detection rate in the recent past, people seem to have lost faith in police machinery. Many victims claim that the police force lacks the wherewithal to detect theft cases but some have also doubted credibility of police force.

A theft victim Ms Farida Shaikh whose flat at Naroo Penta at Tonca-Caranzalem was burgled and gold jewellery worth ` 2 lakh taken away said that the culprits are professional thieves and know the psyche of the middle class people living in the flats. She added that her relatives staying next door were left clueless.
However, Ms Farida was one of the few victims on whom lady luck seem to be smiling as she identified one of the robbers from a picture published in a section of the press and whom she had seen moving around her flat in a suspicious manner while leaving the flat. Hence by locating him, police could identify the robber gang and so she is all set to get back her jewellery.
However, a victim of a fake police gang Ms Laxmi (name changed), whose gold mangalsutra and bangles were robbed a couple of weeks back while she was walking along the Bhatulem-St Cruz road, pointed out that she has lost faith in police.
The case is that when she reached near Mala lake, two persons waited next to a black motorcycle while another approached her and on the pretext of being a policeman and claiming that robbers are at large, asked her to remove gold ornaments to hand them over to him for a brief period. She fell prey to the tactics and handed over the jewellery to the ‘policeman’.  But when she reached her home, to her shock she found that the gold ornaments were replaced with fake jewellery.
While Ms Xavier Colaco, whose house was burgled and gold jewellery and cash all worth ` 1.25 lakh was taken away says that he has also lost hope in police investigation. He says, “The police team came to my house, took the some prints, a dog squad was summoned but till date no sign of robbers or jewellery. One day a policeman came to my house asking me to come to police station and to meet the PI.”
“On reaching the police station, the investigating police officer returned the empty jewellery box. The police told us that their efforts did not bear any fruits and they have not given up hopes of apprehending the robbers.”