Arms and ammunition recovered from the gang. Picture by Eastern Projections

March 5: City police today busted a three-member gang of robbers and seized arms and ammunition from them.

A police source said the accused were arrested from Azara, when they were on their way to commit robberies in the city.

“Three notorious robbers were travelling in a Mahindra Savari from Chamaria of Kamrup district to Adabari when their vehicle was stopped at a police checkpost on National Highway 37 near Azara police station around 9am today,” the source said.

During frisking, the police personnel recovered three handmade revolvers tucked under the shirts of the three accused. They were immediately put under arrest.

“Seventeen rounds of live ammunition were seized from them. A case was registered against them at Azara police station and the accused are likely to be produced in court tomorrow,” the police officer said.

The arrested persons have been identified as Abdul Rafique, Haque Saheb Ali and Somej Ali, all in their mid twenties. The trio were residents of Hatikhola near Chaygaon in Kamrup district.

The police said during interrogation, the accused admitted to being part of a gang, which was involved in several cases of robberies and snatchings in and around Guwahati.

They were coming to the city with an intention to carry out robberies tonight.

“They also revealed before their interrogators that they were planning a reconnaissance of banks to snatch money from customers,” the police officer said. “We are sure that they have a history of crime. We’ll have to find out just in how many robbery cases they were involved.”

The interrogation of the arrested criminals will also help the police track down other members of their gang.

Today’s arrests were a result of the police stepping up security in the city to thwart Ulfa’s plan to carry out strikes during the ongoing budget session of the Assembly.

Frisking has been intensified in all the entry routes to the city, including National Highway 37 at Azara, to foil Ulfa’s bid to smuggle explosives into the city.

The search yielded an improvised explosive device (IED) from a bus at a checkpost on the highway near Azara on Monday.

The police, however, said they have stepped up vigil to arrest the robbers and snatchers active in the city after a series of snatching cases were reported in and around banks.

On February 20, dacoits sneaked into a branch of the Central Bank of India on RG Baruah Road but had to flee after the bank’s siren went off just as the group was about to force its way into the strongroom.