The Commissionerate Police on Monday arrested two members of the notorious ‘Nut Gang’ of Bihar who were involved in a series of cash snatching incidents near various banks in Bhubaneswar recently. The accused have been identified as Badal Gowala (34) and Aniket Das (22).
Police said the accused were presently cooling off in West Bengal after committing several crimes in the Odisha capital city.
Bhubaneswar DCP, Umashankar Dash said that the criminals were involved in at least 4 cash snatching incidents between March 5 and March 10. They had looted a total of around Rs 12 lakh cash in all the cases which were reported from Saheed Nagar, Kharavela Nagar and Chandrasekharpur police station limits.
It is suspected that members of the same Bihar-based criminal gang were involved in a Rs 7 lakh cash loot case in Rourkela recently.
“We stepped up patrolling near banks after the bag (cash) snatching incidents witnessed a rise. One of our teams gave some criminals a chase on March 10, but they managed to escape,” said Dash.
Dash further said that the two accused are part of the notorious Nut Gang of Bihar and they use stolen motorcyles to commit crimes. They mostly targeted people on their return from banks after withdrawing cash.
“We appeal hotel owners to share details and photographs of their visitors. This will help the police to strengthen security measures,” Dash added.