Puri heist: Rs 78.96 lakh worth gold, silver and cash recovered, four arrested

In a major breakthrough, Puri Police on Tuesday cracked a major loot incident and recovered gold and cash worth Rs 78.96L from the looters. The gold and cash belongs to a jewellery shop owner Sanjay Kumar Das, Puri SP told mediapersons.

On November 20, Sanjay Kumar Das, owner of Radhakant jewellery shop, became the victim of a robbery near Samajapur over bridge under Chandanpur police station. Three miscreants on a bike intercepted his four-wheeler carrying gold and cash, and looted the valuables.

Following a complaint at Chandanpur Police Station, two special teams were formed under the direction of Puri SP Prateek Singh. After conducting raids at multiple locations, the police arrested four accused and recovered the stolen items.

Police have managed to seize 132 grams of gold jewellery, 31 kg of silver, cash worth 6 lakh, one firearm with two live bullets, a car, a bike, and six mobile phones from their possession.

Further investigation into the incident is currently underway.

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"A case about loot at Radhakant jewellery shop was reported at Chandanpur police station on November 20. When the shop owner's brother-in-law and driver was going to the bank and for some other work in Bhubaneswar with some valuables and cash in the morning, as many as three miscreants came on a bike and intercepted their vehicle. They looted the gold, silver and cash at gun point. Upon being informed, Chandanpur IIC, SDPO along with me reached the spot and carried out the investigation. We continued our investigation based on the primary findings. We quizzed some persons about the incident. We also used our intelligence and got some proofs. We came to know that the miscreants actually conducted the loot by coming in two bikes and another vehicle," said Puri SP Prateek Singh.

"We were able to identify some people involved in the incident after conducting further investigation. They have been involved in similar kinds of criminal activities earlier. They belong to be part of an inter-state gang and they used to carry out such criminal activities in different districts of the State. After gathering technical intelligence and finding out the details about the bikes and the vehicles, the identity of the persons in the crime was revealed," he further said,

"Four persons involved in the crime have been arrested so far. Another three main accused are still on run. They had planned the crime before one month. A person named Tukuna was staying near the jewellery shop owner in Chandanpur and he had also a jewellery shop. He had good relationship with the younger brother of the complainant. He used to go to his shop regularly. He had planned with another accused to loot the jewellery shop in Chandanpur. Another accused identified as Bapi alias Prashant Pradhan had links with some hardcore criminals. He engaged them in the crime. They came to a hotel where Bapi was staying and made elaborate planning to commit the crime. Tuku was providing them local information. They executed the plan together," he added.