Bhawanipatna: Kalahandi police on Tuesday arrested a gang of four inter-district looters who were allegedly involved in several cases in five western Odisha districts.
The accused were identified as M Ganesh (25), A Ranjit Rao (37), D Akash (27) and J Chendu (18). All of them belong to Ganjam district. They had looted Rs 19.57 lakh from the complainants under different police stations in Kalahandi, Balangir, Nuapada, Kandhamal and Bargarh districts in the last one year, police sources said.
Police have also seized two motorcycles, 3 mobile phones and Rs 1,33,000 in cash from their possession.
In a recent case in Kalahandi district on August 13, the accused had looted Rs 1.09 lakh from Udhaba Sunani of Ambaguda village under Dharmagarh police limits while the latter was returning from Dharmagarh SBI branch after withdrawing the cash.
In another case, the gang had looted Rs 24,000 here from a railway employee 18 days ago. He was on the way to home after withdrawing his pension money from the bank.
Kalahandi SP Saravana Vivek M said it has been revealed in preliminary investigation that prior to commit a crime, the looters used to rent a house in the town so that they can hide quickly after looting money.
In Bhawanipatna, they were staying in a rented house in Irrigation Colony where police conducted a raid and nabbed them. Another member of the gang is absconding and further investigation is on.
The SP said the recovered money has been handed over to two complainants and the accused will be forwarded to court.
