JHARSUGUDA: Jharsuguda police on Sunday busted an inter-district burglary gang that targeted only foreign liquor (FL) shops, and arrested four persons for their alleged involvement in looting two such outlets recently.
The accused are Prasanta Behera (23), Kisan Pandi (22), Narayan Jena alias Mithun (25) and Chitrasen Jena (23), all residents of Ganjam district. The arrest comes two days after the accused committed burglaries at FL shops under Orient and Banharpali police station limits during the intervening night of July 8 and 9.
While cash and liquor bottles were stolen from both establishments, the burglary at the Orient police station limits turned violent as the accused allegedly also assaulted and overpowered the night watchman, tied him up, damaged his mobile phone and fled with the stolen property.
Police said two separate cases were registered on July 9, following which SP Gundala Reddy Raghavendra supervised the investigation.
Multiple special investigation teams were formed and some were sent to Gajapati and Berhampur while other teams analysed CCTV footage, gathered technical intelligence and conducted extensive field inquiries.
Briefing mediapersons on the day, Jharsuguda SP GR Raghavendra said Prasanta was the mastermind of the gang. He was familiar with the locality as his aunt resides under the jurisdiction of Orient police station. All the accused had worked together in Surat.
Verification of the accused’s criminal antecedents revealed that all four are habitual property offenders with multiple burglary cases registered against them in Ganjam, Nayagarh, Khurda, Bhubaneswar and Cuttack Rural districts.
Further investigation revealed they targeted only FL shops as the security and surveillance system is very weak in those facilities, said the SP.