The arrested persons have been identified as Rajesh Agrawal, Sudarsan Mishra, Rajdeep Agrawal, Saroj Kumar Hota, Tapan Kherulal and Akash Agrawal.
The gang had been operating in the city since the start of the IPL matches and used to bet for every ball, over, wicket and other minute aspect of the game, informed Sambalpur SP Sanjeev Arora while addressing a press conference today.
Cash to the tune of Rs 67,000 and 10 mobile phones have been seized from the possession of the accused persons.
“We had inputs that a betting gang was in operation in the city. Subsequently, a special squad was formed to track them and later we raided their hideout and arrested them,” Arora said.
As the involvement of more persons is suspected, further investigation in connection with the betting racket is on.
"We are suspecting that the gang had links with others in Chhattisgarh. Further investigation in this connection is on," Arora added.
Earlier on Thursday, police had busted a similar IPL betting gang operating in Aska of Ganjam district and arrested seven persons and seized cash worth Rs 10,9,800 and 14 mobile phones after a raid.
While online game Blue Whale is suspected to be the reason the girl, Suhani Rout, took such an extreme step, Sambalpur SP Sanjeev Arora has ruled it out.
"During preliminary investigation the name of Blue Whale was mentioned but there is nothing in that respect. We have seized her mobile phone and sent it for verification. Family disturbances for various reasons could be the reason behind it but the facts will be clear once investigation is over," said Arora.
However, mother of Suhani said she suspected her to be addicted to the game. "The set of actions that her friends told she may have done before committing suicide if she was following the game was actually done by her before my eyes. We took it as a minor issue as it is an online app, but it is not a minor issue,” she said.
“I am not sure about the game but there is something unnatural about it. My daughter was not one who would commit suicide," she added.
Earlier on Monday, Suhani's parents had found her hanging in their house. They rushed her to a nearby hospital where doctors declared her brought dead.
Along with the two masterminds of the gang Mohammed Illiash and Jagabandhu Bisoi, six of their aides and a person who had purchased the stolen vehicle have been nabbed by police in a series of raids.
Several parts of dismantled trucks and a luxury car were seized from the arrested, police said.
The Madhupatna police had earlier arrested two alleged kingpins of the racket who revealed the information. After interrogating them, the police traced the stolen truck from a garage in Balasore district, they said.
The Balasore garage owner was arrested along with other members of the racket. A luxury car was also seized from their possession, Cuttack DCP Sanjib Arora said.
All the arrested persons were forwarded to Court today which remanded them to judicial custody, police said adding that both the alleged kingpins of the racket together have at least 16 criminal cases pending against them in several police stations of the city.
During interrogation, it was found that the notorious gang was involved in series of truck stealing cases in Cuttack and neighbouring districts. "So far we have found details of at least 13 truck stealing cases in which Illiash, Bisoi and his aides were involved. We are trying to collect more details about other cases and also trying to recover other stolen vehicles," said a senior police officer.
Arora said that the accused took this step over previous enmity with the MLA's nephew Amarendra Swain. The accused Riyaz Khan of Oriya Bazar and Naim Baksh of Diwan Bazaar have been arrested by the police. Two live bombs and one motorcycle have also been seized from them.
Talking to media persons the DCP said, "The two main accused have been arrested, they are Riyaz Khan alias Gutu and Naim Baksh. Both are residents of Lalbagh area and they have been forwarded to court. In preliminary investigation we found they had a scuffle with the nephew of the MLA that led to the attack, but we are yet to verify all the facts."
It may be mentioned that the accused had hurled bombs at the house of MLA Swain at Chandini Chowk square in the city on late Monday night. The bombers had arrived on a bike and had managed to flee the spot soon after committing the crime. No loss of property had been reported.
The police had initiated an investigation after a case had been lodged at Lalbagh Police Station.
Police said, 28 grams of brown sugar has been seized from the accused, identified as Munna aka Manoj Kahali. The market value of the contraband will be around Rs 2 lakh, police added.
"Acting on a tip-off, the Manglabag police raided in the Maachhua Bazar area and arrested Munna with 28 grams of brown sugar and seized a bike and cash," informed Cuttack DCP Sanjiv Arora.
Cuttack: The Commissionerate Police today busted an online fraud racket and five members including two staff of BSNL.
Talking to the media, DCP Sanjeev Arora said police had received a report on cyber crime in Markat Nagar area in which someone had managed to hack the username and password of an account and withdrew Rs 25 lakh by obtaining the OTP (one-time password) number from the SIM card of the original owner through a duplicate mobile SIM card.
“In course of investigation, we have arrested five persons of which three we had arrested three persons from Kolkata and brought them here on transit remand. After their interrogation, they would be arrested today. The remaining two persons who are the employees of BSNL’s Salepur telecom division have also been arrested. During investigation, it was found that the two BSNL employees had violated the guidelines in the issuance of duplicate SIM cards and provided the SIM card to the prime accused in the name of other person other than the original SIM card owner. After we found the complicity of these two employees in this fraudulent act, we arrested them,” Arora said.
He also said that the three accused who were arrested from Kolkata are veteran criminals and have several such cases pending in different police stations in other states including Odisha. They are mostly involved in such cases in Jharkhand and Rajasthan.
“Police are on the hunt for another one or two accused. We have formed special teams to track him down,” the DCP pointed out.
Asked whether a Nigerian national is involved in this crime, Arora said as per the investigation, two other persons are also involved in this case. “All the accused are educated and they know how to manipulate these things,” he informed.
The DCP also informed that the police have seized a gold chain, cash worth Rs 95,000 and three bikes from the possession of the arrested accused.
The five persons arrested from Kolkata have been identified as Akhilesh Pandey, Satish Yadav and Arun Mishra while the two arrested BSNL employees are Dhruba Charan Khatai and Krutibasa Kandi.
According to reports, Shalini Das, daughter of Sanjib Das of CDA area in Cuttack, has a bank account in the Bank of India (BoI)’s Markat Nagar branch.
The incident came to light after Sanjib found that a sum of Rs 25,11,084 has been withdrawn from his daughter’s account in 71 transactions between November 26 and 28 last year. After contacting the bank officials, he came to know that the money which has been transferred to five fake accounts has been utilised in the purchase of gold ornaments and other items.
After getting information from the bank, Sanjib later lodged a complaint with the Markat Nagar police.
While paints have been applied to the galleries, the curators have taken special care to keep the ground condition intact.
Talking to OTV, Sutu Ghosh, Assistant Curator of OCA said the development work of the pitch where the match would be played, is already over. “Now the maintenance work is underway. To ensure that the ground field would remain in a perfect condition, we are applying hormones to the grass to make its roots strong. Moreover, efforts are on to further improve the condition of the ground for this match compared to the previous match held here,” he added.
Talking about the dew factor, Ghosh said since the ODI would be a day-night affair, steps have been taken to prevent dews during the second session of the match. New chemical medicines have been developed which will not allow dew to settle on the grass and soil. We will apply these medicines both on the grass and the pitch so that there will be inconvenience for the players of both the teams.
Asked about the outfield condition of the stadium, he said the outfield of Barabati Stadium is always fast. “This year we are making the entire outfield sand-based which will be much smoother and faster,” Ghosh pointed out.
On the other hand, taking note of the unsavoury incident in the stadium during the T20 match between India and South Africa last year, adequate security arrangements will be put in place for the ensuing ODI next month.
Talking to media persons, Cuttack DCP Sanjeev Arora said in the first round of meeting, police had intimated OCA about adding some improvement to be done inside the stadium as well as the security arrangements for the match like installation of CCTV cameras, mode of fixing nets to prevent the spectators from throwing any object at the players, arrangements to be made at the entry and exit points and articles to be allowed inside the stadium. “We are trying to get the compliance from the OCA on these parameters by the end of this month,” he added.
Arora said as decided earlier, police will not allow any spectator to carry water bottle inside the stadium. But he said as OCA has made no provision of drinking water for the spectators watching the match from the gallery, suggestion was given to make alternative arrangements somewhere inside the stadium to provide drinking water. “The Commissionerate Police had sought compliance in this regard from OCA through a letter. We hope that OCA will take steps in this regard positively,” he added.
Informing news men about the manhunt here, Sanjeev Arora, Cuttack DCP, said, “A case has been registered under Sec 376 of the IPC and the relevant section of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act at the Sadar police station and the victim has undergone preliminary medical examination.”
He further stated, “We have got evidence and the probe is on."
The incident happened when the four-year-old victim had gone to the temple at 6 pm yesterday to offer prayers and handed over fruits to the priest for offerings to the deity.
Finding her alone, the priest allegedly raped the four-year-old, who used to visit the temple along with her grandmother earlier.
The victim fell ill after narrating the incident to her family members on her return home. She was immediately admitted to the nearby Mahidharpada hospital.
The police today recorded the statement of the victim.
Giving details of the arrest to media persons here, Cuttack DCP Sanjeev Arora said the two arrested prime accused are Ratnakar Das alias Ratna (20) and Gadadhar Das alias Gada (35) of Nuapada village under Dhamnagar police limits in Bhadrak district.
Police has seized a mobile phone snatched from the victim on that fateful night from Ratnakar.
“In the course of the investigation, police arrested Ratnakar and acting on information provided by him during interrogation, Gadadhar was arrested later. Police has got vital information about 2-3 others involved in this incident and they will be arrested very soon,” Arora said.
The DCP informed that Gadadhar has criminal antecedents. A number of cases relating to dacoity and burglary is pending against him in police stations in Dhamnagar area. “Till now, we have not received any information about the criminal antecedents of Ratnakar,” he pointed out.
The DCP said the arrest of the two accused was made with the help of the local police.
“We will seek permission from the court for the test identification (TI) parade of these two accused to be identified by the victim. We will forward them to the court tomorrow,” he informed.
Notably, four miscreants had dragged the victim to a secluded place close to the village and gang raped her there after looting valuables from her house.
The incident took place in the absence of her husband, who had gone out to attend a kin at the SCB Medical College and Hospital.
The victim lodged a complaint with the police the next day.
Cuttack DCP Sanjeev Arora told media persons that eights persons belonging to Cuttack and its nearby places and five people from outside the State were asked to appear before the Chauliaganj police for questioning.
Some of them had won the Balighat auction while others had opted out of the process, the DCP added.
The police will try to find out whether the D-borthers had any role in the Balighat auctions after quizzing the 13 persons, sources said.
Meanwhile, intensifying its probe into the Sheikh Farooq murder case, the Commissionerate Police has sent two special teams outside the State to nab the absconders.
The Dhalasamant brothers were produced before the Cuttack SDJM on Friday and later sent to jail.
“As per the demand of the judicial Magistrate, the criminal siblings were produced in the court. Later, they were sent to jails,” the Cuttack DCP added.
Cuttack DCP Sanjeev Arora said its investigation is in the final stage and the process for framing of the charge sheet would start soon.
“We have registered a new case against the Dhalasamant brothers in Markat Nagar police station under section 386, 387 and 34 of IPC on the basis of a complaint by a contractor that the criminal siblings, along with a person, had threatened and asked him for extortion money towards the tender he was awarded for a construction work in Barang area in Cuttack,” Arora told media persons here on Wednesday.
He said police will arrest some other associates of the Dhalasamant brothers soon. “Police is on its job and I hope we will arrest them very soon,” he informed.
To a question on whether the police is planning to serve notices on some persons said to be the associates of the Dhalasamant brothers, the DCP said the police is collecting information from the people and taking their statements about the criminal antecedents of these persons who are at large. If police gets conclusive evidence against them, they will be arrested.
Talking about the investigation, he said it is nearing completion.
Asked what steps the commissionerate police had taken for confiscation of properties of 15 criminals of the Dhalasamant gang, Arora said the police had already initiated the process. “We are trying to arrest them as soon as possible. If these people are not arrested within the specified time frame, action will be initiated against them as per law,” he pointed out.
Police, during the two-month investigation, has so far arrested 29 anti-socials and interrogated 32 persons by serving notice on them.
Besides, it has registered 11 cases against Dhalasamant brothers, the DCP said.
Official sources said, the police has so far arrested about 100 rowdies with criminal backgrounds from six coastal districts. While the maximum of 32 gangsters have been held from Puri, 23 have been arrested from Kendrapara.
“We have arrested many of them (criminals) and it will continue. We are in the process of gathering evidence against some and they will be put behind bars soon,” IG, central range, RP Koche said.
Koche said raids will be conducted to arrest more criminals suspected to have links with the criminal siblings.
One of the associates of the gangster sibling, Bhuan alias Pramod Patra, who gained notoriety for indulging in extortion and attempt to murder, was arrested yesterday. Police also seized over Rs 70 lakh cash from his house at Shankarpur area in Cuttack during a raid.
“The police has concrete information about the extortion cases and we are going to nab them very soon,” Cuttack DCP Sanjeev Arora said.
Meanwhile, police commissioner YB Khurania has asked the all the inspectors in Bhubaneswar to prepare a list of habitual offenders and dreaded criminals. A quick action team (QAT) has also been formed for the same.