5 Arrested For ‘Looting’ Rs 1 Lakh On Lure Of Hanuman Coins In Odisha’s Jharsuguda

Jharsuguda: Police have arrested 5 members of an inter-district gang for allegedly looting Rs 1 lakh from a person on the plea of giving him two coins with Hanuman mark in Odisha’s Jharsuguda district.

Speaking to media persons on Tuesday on the incident, Jharsuguda SDPO Nirmal Mohapatra said Rabindra Kumar Das, who works as a contractor of civil construction works in the town, had filed a complaint regarding the loot on August 27.

Das stated in the complaint that one of the gang members had developed friendship with him some time back and told him that he can arrange the Hanuman coins. The gang member also took him to a place near Laikera in the district and introduced him to another person. The third person showed him two coins.

Following negotiation, the third person agreed to sell the ‘precious’ coins for Rs 1 lakh. The second person told Das that the coins would fetch very high price in black market and they would share the profit. Lured by high return, Das carried Rs 1 lakh and went to a deserted place along with the gang member to get the coins on August 27.

By the time they reached there, four other gang members were already there. They beat up Das and snatched away the money and mobile phone of Das.

After Das filed the complaint on the same day, a special squad was formed under supervision of Jharsuguda district SP to investigate the case. During investigation, the squad traced the accused by tracking the phone number of the person who had befriended Das. When the police team found all five together at a place, they arrested them on Monday night.

The police have seized two duplicate Hanuman coins, a car, two motorcycles, Rs 90,000 of looted amount, 5 mobile phones and ATM cards from possession of the arrested persons.

The SDPO said the gang belonged to Sundargarh and was operating in different districts like Sambalpur, Sonepur and Jharsuguda for quite some time. Already several cases have been lodged against the gang at different police stations, he added.

He appealed to the people not to fall prey to such fraudsters and inform the police if they are contacted by such persons.