Drug-&-Loot Gang Busted In Bhubaneswar; Woman Mastermind Among 4 Arrested

Bhubaneswar: Twin City Commissionerate Police on Saturday busted a drug-and-loot gang with the arrest of four persons, including its mastermind Sarifa Khatun alias Muskaan, in Odisha capital.

The other arrested have been identified as Ashok Behera (33) alias Landa of Gandhinagar in Ganjam, Purnachandra Sethi (33) of Itamati area in Nayagarh, Sushanta Rout (34) of Odagaon in Nayagarh. Muskaan (22) is a resident of Unit-III area in the capital city.

According to sources, the gang members were nabbed from Master Canteen area in the city around 3 am by a team of Kharvelnagar police while they were plotting to rob passengers near Bhubaneswar railway station. Two motorcycles, a knife, cold drinks and four strips of Lorazepam tablets, used commonly as a sedative and anxiolytic, were seized from them.

“The woman usually seduced the passengers and offered them spiked food or drinks while others robbed their money and valuables once they lost consciousness,” said a police officer, adding two other accused managed to escape during the raid.

The gang members usually targeted youths and personnel of armed forces on their arrival at the city railway station, he further said.

All arrested have criminal cases pending against them, the officer added.