Kathmandu, February 21

The Metropolitan Police Crime Division recorded 307 incidents of thefts in the fiscal year 2014-15 against 289 such incidents in the fiscal year 2013-14.

As many as 119 cases of property crime, most of which took place in broad daylight, have been reported so far in the current fiscal.

SSP Sarbendra Khanal, MPCD in-charge, informed that most of reported cases of thefts occurred in daylight, that too, in unattended houses and rented rooms.

Criminals have been making houses and rooms their soft target during office hours when the house owners and tenants leave their abode unattended for their day-to-day business. They usually make off with cash, gold and electronic goods.

While law enforcement agencies have made modest gains against organised crime trade in small arms, extortion, forgery and peddling of drugs, explosives, fraud and kidnapping of late, they have not been able to curb property crime effectively.

According to police investigators, the daytime burglaries will decrease to a great extent only if the house owners or tenants take care of their cash and valuables and do not leave the houses unattended.

Officials said they were having a tough time tackling property crimes due to involvement of the same groups and persons in burglaries after doing time in jail or being released on bail.

Around 15 per cent of the burglars turn out to be repeat offenders, thanks to the provision of lenient punishment for thieves.

For instance, police busted a gang of serial burglars and arrested four suspects, including Phurba Sherpa, 20, of Sindhupalchowk on July 20.

Sherpa was convicted of theft by Sindhupalchowk District Court and jailed for a month. He, however, managed to escape the prison amid the chaos of the April 25 earthquake.

On June 16, Tej Bahadur Magar aka Kumar Thapa, 32, of Nuwakot, was held with 33 Dell laptops that he had stolen from Chelsea Education Centre, Tokha.

He turned out to be a repeat offender as he was released from jail in 2011 after serving eight years for two separate robberies in Matatirtha and Kirtipur.