Brahmapur: Odisha Police has recovered gold and silver ornaments worth around Rs 50 lakh, which were looted from a jeweller in Chhattisgarh last month, officials said Monday.
The recovered ornaments, comprising 300 grams of gold and 1.4 kg of silver, were found in the locked house of one of the accused at Sorada in Ganjam district Sunday and handed over to Chhattisgarh Police for further investigation.
The accused are still absconding, police said.
“We have identified the accused persons. Search has intensified at different hideouts to nab them,” said Saurav Ranjan Pradhan, Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO), Asika.
Four bike-borne miscreants had allegedly snatched a bag containing gold and silver ornaments from a jewellery shop owner while he was opening his shop at Ambikapur in Chhattisgarh’s Sitapur police station area July 26.
Chhattisgarh Police subsequently circulated CCTV footage of the incident to police stations across the country to identify the accused, Pradhan said.
“After verifying the CCTV footage, we confirmed that one of the accused belongs to Sorada. We kept watch on his and his wife’s bank transactions for the last few days, suspecting that he would deposit the money after selling the looted ornaments,” Pradhan said.
As no major transactions were detected in their bank accounts, police suspected that the ornaments might have been kept at the accused’s house and conducted a raid.
“The house was locked when we reached there. The key, however, was with one of his relatives,” the SDPO said.
During the search, police found the looted ornaments concealed in a box packed with dried mangoes, he said.
A four-member police team from Chhattisgarh, which came to Ganjam for the investigation, thanked Sorada police for recovering the looted ornaments in less than a month.
“We hope the accused will be arrested soon with the combined efforts of police of both states”, said a Chhattisgarh police officer.