KOLKATA: As traders try their best to salvage their goods from the fire-ravaged Bagri Market , thieves are apparently also hard at work, picking up almost anything and everything they could lay their hands on and shoving them in sacks before fleeing the gutted wholesale mart.The Burrabazar police station has registered at least one complaint from a trader about theft from his semi-destroyed shop, while several businessmen have sent across verbal petitions, asking for protection against stealing. “Since the day the fire broke out, several outsiders have gained entry into the market and especially since Tuesday, thieves have been disappearing with stocks from the shops. We ourselves caught a few and handed them over to the cops. They were a band of men from Ghutiary Sharif in South 24 Parganas, who were stacking materials from semi-damaged shops in their sacks and fleeing. We pleaded before the cops to help us prevent theft,” said Harish Agarwal, a shop owner on the first floor of the market.Ever since the fire broke out, the market gates have remained unguarded at night, and anyone could enter and leave on the pretext of “checking his shop”. “That allowed the entry of several thieves. They targeted everything, from boxes of pens to body oils to sunglasses. We did catch a few but several items from multiple stores have been looted. We had asked the commissioner of police to take immediate action,” another trader said.Acting on the complaints, cops sealed the gates with tapes from Thursday night and installed CCTV cameras at each of the six gates and the staircases of each floor. A temporary police outpost has even been set up at an empty store on the ground floor of the market, facing Amartalla Lane, where cops have been keeping a close watch on the screens beaming images from the the 16 CCTV cameras at the market.A senior officer at Lalbazar added the cameras would also help them prevent any rumours, many of which have been doing the rounds over the past couple of days. “First, there was a rumour about two local boys starting the fire. Then, there was a rumour that several litres of oil and diesel stacked inside the market had fuelled the fire, and then, there were complaints of theft. So, we thought it would be best to install CCTV cameras,” said the officer.

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