A tip-off led to the arrest of six criminals late on Wednesday at Thakurpukur, on the southern fringes of the city. A cache of arms was seized from them.

District superintendent of police (South 24-Parganas) Praveen Kumar said the criminals were rounded up from Hanspukur, on Bakhrahat Road, where they had assembled to commit a dacoity.

“We are looking into their involvement in recent dacoities and interrogation is on. A search is on for the other members and the leader of the gang,” Kumar said.

Preliminary interrogation revealed that the six were involved in a number of crimes, including dacoity and highway robbery, in Thakurpukur, Sonarpur, Bishnupur and the adjacent areas.

The arrested were identified as Mokem Bux, Kartik Mondal, Mohammad Eshak, Sheikh Miraj, Pradeep Mondal and Iqbal Mondal. All of them are in the 25-to-30 age-group. They are residents of Raspunja, near Hanspukur, in Thakurpukur. Four improvised guns, six cartridges, six live bombs and daggers were seized from them.

“In their locality, they claimed they were daily wage-earners but at night, they grouped together and carried out their criminal activity. Before any operation, they would collect information about the area and the house that was their target,” the officer said.

In the recent past, there has been a spate of dacoities in Sonarpur. Two houses were burgled and before that, bus passengers were looted on Diamond Harbour Road.

In all the cases, the dacoits were of the same age and spoke in Bengali. “So we were sure that the criminals had not come from outside. Moreover, after every operation, the manner of their escape made it clear that they were familiar with the area,” he said.

Additional superintendent of police (industrial) D.P. Singh said that the criminals have been taken into police custody for interrogation.

“We hope to solve a number of dacoities and robberies after interrogating them. Already, we have gathered some vital clues,” he added.