A gang which created havoc in Baleswar districts and several other areas of the State by committing a series of loots and snatchings was busted by police on Thursday.
The police recovered looted articles after carrying out raids at different locations in the State.
The criminals, who were involved in the highway loots and gold chain snatchings, were forwarded to court, said Baleswar SP Niti Sekhar at a Press briefing here.
The gang was involved in the inter-State dacoities, loots and robberies. They committed crimes in Cuttack, Bhubaneswar, Khordha, Jajpur, Bhadrak besides Baleswar and West Bengal’s Midnapore.
The criminals were mainly targeting women and looting their ornaments after threatening them at gun points,” Sekhar said.
A separate squad was formed comprising the IICs of the Industrial, Sadar, Sahadvkhunta police stations and the investigation was headed by the Crime DSP of Baleswar. The recovered looted items include 11 gold chains and two bikes, an Activa and a Passion Pro, the SP informed.
In all, seven persons, including a receiver stolen properties belonging to Bhadrak district, were forwarded to court after being booked under Section 394 of IPC and Sections 25 and 27 of the Arms Act.
All the accused persons except one belong to Bengal. They are Asiful Rehman (25) of Panskura, Sk Sabir (30) of Srirampur, East Midnapore, Abdul Khara laik (30), Sk Niamat (20) and Sk Rabibul (32) of village Maina in East Midnapore Medinapur and Nabin Swain (24) of Aska in Ganjam district.
The loot properties receiver Niru Prasad Sahu is a jeweller of Charampa of Bhadrak.
Two members of the gang had been caught by locals of Chhanua village on Sunday when they were fleeing after committing two snatching, one under the Sahadevkhunta police station and another under the Industrial police station. Rest of them were subsequently nabbed by police.