In a major breakthrough, a special squad of the Commissionerate Police busted an inter-state gang of robbers in Bhubaneswar and arrested 11 members on Wednesday.
The gang used stolen motorcycles and fake registration numbers while committing the crimes in a bid to confuse the police in various parts of Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Jharkhand.
A huge cache of gold jewellery has been recovered from their possession, informed Commissionerate Police in a press release.
As per reports, the gang was involved in 27 cases of chain and cash snatching, theft, and mobile phone snatching in various parts of Odisha.
According to police, the accused have been identified as Binod Das, Anil Das, M. Raja, Siba Das, A. Prasad, P. Ajaya, A. Ashok, P. Subash, D Srinibash, N Rajsekhara Achari, all of Aska in Ganjam, and Samir Pradhan of Jajpur.
Police seized six stolen motorcycles, 50 mobile phones, 17 gold chains, 25 grams of gold ornaments, Rs 2.50 lakh cash, and dickey-breaking instruments from their possession.
According to police, most of the gang members belong to Ganjam while one of them is from Jajpur.
Police said, previously the gang members were using genuine motorcycles, but due to CCTV surveillance, they changed their modus operandi by tampering the chassis and engine numbers of the stolen bikes. They were operating in Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Jharkhand, and most parts of Odisha.
DCP Sanjib Panda said, "A special squad arrested 11 members of an Eragolla gang which is led by Siba. They are involved in various categories of crimes like chain snatching, cash snatching, dickey-breaking, motorcycle theft and mobile phone snatching. They are involved in 27 cases that were committed from December 2023 till date.”
He added that four to five more members of this gang will be arrested soon.