The Ganjam police cracked a gold loot case and recovered gold jewellery weighing 6.5 kg and arrested 15 persons, including mastermind Ghanashyam Behera alias Kalia (30), in connection with the incident on Tuesday.
The 15 accused include 18-year-old Amit Behera, who provided information regarding layout of the house to Kalia and also assisted him during robbery.The other accused are Kalia Das (20), Trinath Behera alias Bagha (20), Kanhu Charan Pattanaik (20), Sankar Bahera (24) and Swarajya Das (21) of Purushottampur, Pintu Nahak (26), Bulu Nahak (30) and Sanyasi Nahak (30) of Kabisuryanagar in the district.
Notably, on October 12, miscreants broke into the house of a gold trader in Purushotampur area in the district and looted jewellery worth crores and cash from his house. Besides, police arrested five receivers D Dipu Acharya (30), Santosh Acharya (26), P Bira Bhadra Rao (36), Nand Kishore Bhagat (37) and Mithun Behera (25) for buying the stolen property. The cops recovered 6.501 kg gold jewellery and Rs 4,44,500 cash , a DVR of CCTV, a mobile phone from the arrestees possession. “Mastermind Kalia collected information regarding gold ornaments and entrance door of the house from Amit , who was working as an assistant of the complainant.
After collecting information, he contacted the other accused, chalked out plan and attempted thrice to commit the robbery but could not succeed,” said Southern Range DIG Satyabrata Bhoi.
But on October 12, they successful managed to enter the house by breaking open the door of the terrace and committed the robbery, Bhoi told reporters on Wednesday.