Kharghar has witnessed a steep rise in cases of theft and housebreakings in the past few days. The latest case was reported in the wee hours of Tuesday morning, wherein two commercial outlets were broken into. The local residents' association has blamed the lack of police patrolling in the area. A large number of undertrial history sheeters were released on parole due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result of this, petty offences have increased and most police stations are running with half the staff due to the pandemic.

Out of the two commercial outlets targeted, one is a unisex saloon in sector 19 and the other was a hardware outlet in sector 20. Police suspect it is a job by the same group, as the pattern of offence is similar – apart from taking small cash, at both places the accused opened the shutter partly, without breaking the locks. They vanished with colour TVs, the CCTV camera monitor and even the camera recording set top box, with other items from both outlets, said the police.