Cuttack: Six persons involved in the inter-state theft and transport of ferro chrome were arrested Friday by the STF of Crime Branch after they conducted raids at various places near Manguli and Tangi areas in this district in the last two days. The six arrested have been identified as Ajit Gupta, Santosh Kumar Verma, Babli Gupta, Kundan Paswan, Nanda Kishore Singh and Radheshyam Gupta.
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The inter-state gang had been operating in Odisha, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Jharkhand. A huge quantity of stolen of ferro-chrome (weighing around 214 tonne) was found in their possession and seized. The market value of the seized mineral is estimated to be more than Rs 2 crore. Three trucks, a generator set, an electric sewing machine were also seized during the raids.
The gang-members would either steal the mineral from trucks while it was being being transported to consignees at various ports, a STF official said.
Notably, ferro chrome is exported from India through various ports to different countries including Japan and South Korea.
PNN
