Angul: Cracking down on a dacoit gang that had looted two houses in last two months, the police apprehended seven robbers Sunday in connection with the thefts and have recovered several stolen ornaments from them.
The arrested have been identified as Mithun Behera, Rajesh Pradhan, Tuna Muduli, Cipun Pradhan, Samir Barik, Akshay Behera and Hiraj Pradhan. All the robbers are residents of Angul.
200 grams of gold, 500 grams of silver, two mobile phones, one knife, two motorcycles and Rs 11,000 was seized from the gang’s possession.
According to the case diary, three dacoits of the gang entered a house in Balanda in the absence of the owner at around 8pm, July 16. They tied up the owner’s wife and fled from the scene after looting costly ornaments from the house.
Similarly, five dacoits barged into a house in CWS Colony on the pretext of ‘chanda’ collection for Ganesh Puja. They first gagged the woman’s mouth and then robbed all the cupboards of precious jewelry, August 30.
Two separate complaints were lodged in this connection. Since then, the police had formed a special team to trace the movements of the looters.
“After these two incidents, police stations of Talcher, Kaliyari, Bikrampur and Balanda formed a special team on the orders of the SP and apprehended seven of the gang today,” SDPO Hemant Panda said.
Meanwhile, another member of the gang is at the large and will be nabbed soon, Panda added.
PNN