SAMBALPUR: In a major breakthrough in the daring Mannapuram Gold Finance heist, Sambalpur police arrested four more accused, taking the total number to eight.
The four nabbed with the help of the Delhi police were identified as Vikash Kumar and Sanjeev Kumar Paswan, both from Vaishali in Bihar. The other two Yash Anand and Piyush Raj are from Patna. All four are said to be close associates of the alleged mastermind Subodh Singh.
With the fresh arrests, police claimed they are now close to solving the entire case. Breifing the media on Friday evening, IG Northern Range, Himansu Lal said, the case is almost resolved and all the accused are now in police custody.
“The involvement of Subodh Singh and his gang has been clearly established following a thorough investigation. They have a very wide network across the country. The process of recovery of the gold will start soon,” Lal said.
Sambalpur SP Mukesh Bhamoo said, Subodh had entrusted Vikash to execute the loot in Sambalpur. Vikash and Piyush had earlier robbed 25 kg gold in Rajasthan and 17 kg in Madhya Pradesh. The planning, execution, logistics and disposal were all handled by different teams to mislead the police.
“We have cracked all parts of the operation except the disposal, but we’ve ascertained that the looted gold fetched a huge sum which was used to procure sophisticated firearms. We have recovered around 14 pistols from the possession of the accused. All four will be forwarded to court on Saturday as investigations continue,” Bhamoo said.
Last month, Subodh was brought on a seven-day remand. Despite being behind bars, he was allegedly orchestrating crimes across states through his active criminal network. His record includes at least 28 major crimes across Odisha, Rajasthan, Bihar, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, including gold heists, contract killings, and cases of extortion.
Other accused arrested in connection with the case include Uttam Paswan, believed to have coordinated the heist from Guwahati, and Pankaj Paswan and Ajaya Paswan from Hajipur. A country-made pistol and live ammunition were recovered from Pankaj’s rented house in Sambalpur during his remand.
The robbery had taken place on January 3 at the Mannapuram Gold Finance office in Budharaja, Sambalpur. The total value of the stolen assets is estimated to be around Rs 20 crore.
Police said the final phase of investigation will focus on ascertaining the disposal route of the gold and its recovery.