Bhubaneswar: Police have arrested three members of an inter-state dacoit gang and seized a gun from their possession during a raid on a garden in Odisha’s Puri town.
The police came to know about the gang during investigation into the loot from Kandapada panchayat office under Ranpur police station in Nayagarh district on June 3. When the villagers found the three persons in the panchayat office at night, the former tried to catch hold of them.
The gang fired in the air to frighten the villagers and tried to escape in a car. But their car met with an accident at a short distance and they fled leaving the car behind. During investigation, Ranpur police traced the owner of the abandoned car and came to know about the dacoit gang.
While the police were on the lookout for the gang, Puri police was informed about the dacoits in the town. The police conducted a raid on Manisuar park in Baselisahi where the gang was planning a loot and nabbed them.
The police also seized the gun used in the loot in Ranpur, 14 rounds of live cartridges, a cutter machine, one LED TV and an inverter from their possession. The arrested dacoits have been identified as Ranjan Kumar of Bihar, Pintu Swain and Ashok Barik of Banki, Sarankul SDPO Sudhakar Sahu told the media persons.
During questioning, the dacoits revealed to the police that they were targeting the closed houses and looting the costly items from those places. Besides Odisha, they used to operate in other states also as they had to dispose of the stolen items, the SDPO said.
However, the kingpin of the gang was absconding and a manhunt had been launched to trace him, he added.
