Sambalpur: Police have detained three members of a dacoit gang for alleged theft of electric equipment worth more than Rs 23 lakh from an under-construction power grid in Odisha’s Sambalpur district.
Speaking to the media on the arrest, Rairakhol SDPO Prashant Meher said the gang of six members barged into the power grid developed by a private contractor near Charmal on the night of August 22.
“They threatened the security guard of taking his life and locked up the labourers present there in a project office. They took away their mobile phones before loading eight drums of conductor wires, cable wires, fans and other equipment in a truck,” said Meher.
They took the truck loaded with the looted items, worth over Rs 23 lakh to Kolkata where the dacoits sold those to Amit Jaiswal.
After the contractor filed a complaint about the theft, the police started investigation. On the basis of the statements of the labourers and information obtained from other sources, the police have detained three members of the gang.
They are Alok Sahu, Mizen SK, and Hasan SK. Acting on their confession, the police also arrested Jaiswal from Kolkata. Alok, who was the mastermind of the theft, carried out the crime over phone from Jharsuguda.
The SDPO said the police had recovered stolen items worth Rs 14-15 lakh from the four accused. Efforts were on to recover the rest items and arrest three other accused who are absconding, he added.
