ROURKELA: Two anti-socials reportedly using the government-owned circuit house at Panposh as a hideout were nabbed by RN Pali police in the wee hours of Saturday.
Police also recovered two illegal firearms and some live bullets from the duo who was allegedly enjoying the best of hospitality in the state-managed guesthouse for more than 20 days.
Police sources said the arrested duo was linked to an influential youth BJP leader. They were using the Circuit House since July 21 and during their stay, had checked in and out of the government guesthouse on multiple occasions.
While police remained tight-lipped about the incident, reliable sources identified one of the arrested culprits as one Bikash Dungri of Plant Site area. The arrest came after the two arrested habitual offenders uploaded video clips on social media threatening their rivals.
DIG (Western Range) Brijesh Kumar Rai said acting on a tip off, police raided the Circuit House in the early hours of Saturday and arrested the two criminals with firearms and bullets. Basing on their information, police arrested five of their accomplices from different areas of the city and recovered two more illegal firearms.
The DIG confirmed that the two anti-socials had got access to the Circuit House through a local influential person. Investigation is underway to ascertain how they managed to get easy access to the government facility.
Rai said preliminary investigation revealed that the Circuit House was outsourced to a private agency. Possible role of the agency in harbouring the criminals is also under investigation.
The recently renovated Circuit House is one of the best-of-its-kind government guesthouse in the region. It is under the care of a Nizarat officer and the Panposh sub-collector is the competent authority for management of the facility.
While Panposh sub-collector CK Mallick did not respond to repeated calls, Sundargarh collector Subhankar Mohapatra said he was not aware of the incident. He said police would investigate if anything wrong happened. Details would be known after completion of police investigation, he added.
Reliable sources said police have registered an FIR. All the seven arrested persons have multiple cases of assault, possession of firearms, criminal intimidation and others.