Acting on a tip-off, police arrested six persons on Friday night on the charges of smuggling chromites in the reserved Mahagiri forest under Kaliapani police station. The police seized four tonnes of chromites from a house at Panasia village within the Mahagiri forest, besides a gun from the arrested persons.
Those arrested were identified as Bipin Nayak (34) of Kusamundai village, Damburu Behera of Kusamundai, Raju Dehuri (34), Biju Sai (25) of Panasia village, Pitabasa Mohanty (54) of Haripur and Prasana Jena (36) of Kantigadia.
Kaliapani police station IIC Sishir Mishra said the arrested persons were booked under Sections 25 of Arms Act, Sections 379, 411 and 34 of IPC, besides the Mines Act. An investigation is on.
Meanwhile, the police produced all the arrested persons in the court of Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) at Jajpur Road on Saturday. The court remanded them in jail custody after rejecting their bail petitions, added Mishra