JAGATSINGHPUR: Police on Saturday arrested five persons involved in burglary at the house of a Judge at Kania village under Balikuda police limits last month.
All the five accused are wanted inter-district criminals.
Informing this to mediapersons, SP Sudha Singh said the accused are Susant Swain, Bidyadhar Sahu, Amiya Ranjan Muduli, Biswajit Swain and Rakesh Prusty. They belong to Jajpur and Jagatsinghpur districts. Bidyadhar works as driver of the Chief District Medical Officer of Jagatsinghpur.
The SP said Bidyadhar used to locate houses of influential persons during the day time and provided the information to mastermind of the gang, Susant, who is a resident of Dhuanpari area under Tirtol block.
Along with other members, they used to commit robbery in different places.
According to reports, the burglars had broke open the main door of the house of Shovan Kanungo, Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC), Bhawanipatna, at his ancestral village Kania on June 17 and looted cash worth Rs 30,000 and 10 grams of gold jewellery and a laptop.
Kanungo currently stays in Bhawanipatna with his family members and the house at Kania remains locked.
His relative Amiya Das visits the house everyday for performing puja. The incident came to light when Das opened the house a day later. He found the ‘almirah’ in the house broken and the cash and jewellery missing.
Das lodged an FIR stating that property worth Rs four lakh - 10 grams of gold, one laptop and cash of Rs 30,000 - had been stolen from the house.
On a tip off, police arrested the driver on Saturday and during questioning, he admitted to have committed the robbery at the Judge’s house along with his accomplices.
Balikuda police also raided the jewellery shop at Nischintakoili in Cuttack district where the criminals sold the stolen jewellery items.
While the jewellery items were recovered, owner of the shop Subhash Sathua is absconding.
Another member of the gang, Natabar Bhuiyan of Kulashai village under Jagatsinghpur police limits is also absconding.
The SP informed that the criminals are wanted in more than 22 robbery cases in Jagatsinghpur, Jajpur and Cuttack districts.
A laptop, drilling machine, a four-wheeler, among other things, have been seized from them.