After six days of manhunt and search operations, a team of the Khurda police finally on Tuesday arrested seven dacoits of a gang in connection with the Narangarh Odisha Gramya bank robbery committed on July 3.
The police also recovered 3.5 kg of gold and cash of `2.9 lakh and seized five motorbikes, a Mauser, five live bullets and bomb making instruments from the arrested persons’ possession. The police team is searching another two aides of the arrested robbers, said a police officer.
The police said the arrested persons belong to Nayagarh, Ganjam and Bhubaneswar. They are involved in several cases under different police stations of their areas.
Notably, five armed miscreants had looted gold jewellery after hurling a bomb inside the Odisha Gramya Bank campus at Narangarh in Khurda district, 15 km from here. Two bank employees and a college boy were injured in the attack.
After reaching the bank premises by bikes, the miscreants had barged into a hall where an internal meeting of bank officials was being held.
They compelled the branch manager to open the strong room by brandishing a revolver at him and then looted over 700 packets of gold jewellery and cash of Rs 11 lakh from the treasury.
When the police were chasing the robbers, they disappeared from the road after hurling bombs on the police personnel near Dadhimachhagadia Chhak in the Narangarh area.