BHUBANESWAR : The city police arrested nine members of a gang for their alleged involvement in recent incidents of burglaries in the capital.
The accused are natives of Ganjam district but used to flee to various cities and states like Mumbai, Surat, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh after committing the crimes to evade arrest.
The miscreants were wanted in connection with four cases registered by Mancheswar police in December last year. They had entered four flats in Space Town Apartment on late December 11 night and decamped with cash, gold and silver ornaments worth lakhs.
As per police, property offender Girish Naik had formed the gang along with his associates Mrutyunjaya Sahoo and Bulu Patra. The other accused Bablu Dalei, Santosh Kumar Dash, Bishnu Pradhan, Prashant Behera, Ranjan Raula and Amit Kumar Jena are also part of the group.
They used to commit burglaries in Bhubaneswar, Puri, Berhampur, Ganjam and Jharsuguda after carrying out recce during day. They committed the crimes between 1 am and 3 am. Apart from Mancheswar police station, six cases for similar offences were earlier registered against them at Infocity, Laxmisagar, Airfield, Bharatpur and Tamando police stations.
“Around `3.20 lakh in cash, silver ornaments weighing 1.5 kg, one gold chain and other ornaments, house breaking equipment, four motorcycles, eight mobile phones and other articles were seized from them,” said an officer of Mancheswar police station.
“The group’s masterminds Naik and Sahoo are supari killers. Initial investigation suggests two murder cases were registered against Naik in Ganjam and three against Sahoo in Chhattisgarh,” said Bhubaneswar-Cuttack police commissioner, Sanjeeb Panda.
The police said the group is among those involved in carrying out burglaries in city’s apartments and efforts are on to nab other miscreants who have committed similar crimes here in the last few months.