Kharavela Nagar Police on Monday arrested a gang of six dacoits and recovered from their possession firearms and sharp weapons.
All the gang members belong to Khurda district and five of them are from Gurjang. An airgun, sharp weapons, a car and other items used for dacoity were recovered from their possession.
The six have been identified as Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, Sangram Sahu, Raj Kishore Sundarray, Bhabani Mohapatra, Bhabani Patsani and Prashant Swain.
Police said the six were scheming a dacoity at Big Bazaar. “Although carrying out a burglary or dacoity in the mall is not easy, the gang was apparently waiting for an opportunity to strike at something,” an officer said.
One of the six, Soumya, is a veteran with at least eight cases of robbery and dacoity pending against him.