2 Members Of Lift-And-Loot Gang Arrested In Bhubaneswar, Car & Gold Ornaments Seized

The Saheed Nagar police in Bhubaneswar on Thursday arrested two members of a criminal gang involved in looting valuables from people after offering lift.

The arrested accused were identified as Debendra Parida and Budhiram Swain. The police have seized a car, four strips of sedatives, four cellphones, 40 gram gold, one motorcycle and Rs 5,000 cash from their possession.

“There are some other members in the group that usually loot people after offering lift in their vehicle and subsequently drugging them. The gang was involved in looting around Rs 2 lakh and gold ornaments after drugging people in Cuttack in November last year,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Bhubaneswar, Umashankar Dash said.

Dash added that multiple cases are pending against the accused duo with the Cuttack government railway police (GRP), Puri and Jajpur police.

In order to caution people, the police have decided to put up photographs of the two accused along with advisory in all bus stands, taxi stand and railway stations.

The modus operandi of the gang members was to target people, mostly waiting passengers at railway station as well as bus stands, and loot their valuables after drugging them.

Earlier this month, two cases of lift and loot were reported from the Capital City.