Cuttack: Commissionerate Police on Thursday arrested three more associates of the arrested criminal siblings Sushil and Sushant Dhalasamant.
The three arrested hailing from Cuttack city have been identified as Babua alias Prakash Behera and Tutu alias Debendra Behera of Sheikh Bazar and Nanda alias Samirkant Sharma of Gandarpur.
Talking to media persons after the arrest of the three associates, Cuttack DCP Sanjiv Arora said the police came to know about their association with the Dhalasamant brothers after tracking their frequent movement in the CDA Sector-6 area in the city where the Dhalasamant brothers have a house.
“The police, after intercepting the three associates, seized three 9mm pistols, one 7.65mm pistol, 10 rounds of 9mm live bullets, a bike and three mobile phones from their possession,” he added.
Arora said of the three associates, Babua is a veteran arms dealer and was arrested several times for illegal arms dealing cases. He said police, during a series of raids on the houses of the Dhalasamant gang members, had come to know that Babua was supplying arms to the concerned people.
He further said that the commissionerate police had raided the house of Tukuna in Talcher area recently and seized several arms and ammunition. During the interrogation of Tukuna, police had come to know that Babua used to get the arms from him. After the arrest of Tukuna, he was in touch with some people from Odisha and the neighbouring states who were supplying arms to him.
“During the interrogation of Babua, it was revealed that he used to supply arms to Tutu and Nanda. Nanda was a close associate of Bharat Bhusan, one of the closest associates of the Dhalasamant brothers, who was arrested by the commissionerate police recently,” the DCP informed.
Meanwhile, police forwarded the three arrested persons to the court today.
On Wednesday, Commissionerate Police had stumbled on documents showing that the D-brothers own around 25 acres of land in Cuttack city and nearby areas.
Police sources revealed that a 4000 sq ft plot in Bidanasi area, 15 acres of residential land in Bidyadharpur area and 10 acres of land in Tangarhuda area under Sadar police limits belonging to the duo, their firm and relatives have been found.
Sources in the investigating team have said it had come to light that the criminal siblings also owned land in several other places in the state, including Bhubaneswar, Bhadrak and Puri.
Meanwhile, Commissionerate Police has lodged four new cases against the D-brothers. While the duo had already been charged with murder of Dipu and Om and possession of fake currency notes, they have now been charged with keeping illegal firearms, fake and forged documents.