Siliguri, Nov. 2: Four dacoits were arrested from the outskirts of the town in a crackdown in the wee hours today. Three firearms with live cartridges were recovered from them.

Police suspect that the gang was involved in two incidents of robbery in October. The arrested persons are in the age group of 18-22 years and have been identified as Sanjoy Ghosh, Nur Hassan, Sanjib Guria and Dipu Kamti. Ghosh is a resident of Raiganj in North Dinajpur, while the rest are from Debidanga and Babubhasa in Pradhannagar, the police said.

“We had picked up Kamti from Debidanga during our night patrolling around 1am. Sometime later, we caught the three others gang members near Babubhasa on the outskirts of Champasari,” said Gaurab Sharma, the additional superintendent of police of Silguri. “We have recovered three firearms from their possessions with live cartridges. A six-chamber revolver with four bullets was found on Ghosh. Two one-shutter improvised firearms or muskets with four live cartridges were seized from the others.”

Ghosh had a criminal record in North Dinajpur. The police are trying to find out if the gang was involved in the Sishabari and Shalbari robberies last month. On October 20, criminals had raided a police constable’s house at Sishabari and injured the policeman while fleeing with valuables. Two days later, the house of a retired tea garden worker was attacked and his elder son shot at. In both the cases, the gangs had fled with cash and ornaments worth around Rs 2 lakh.

After the incidents, the police had formed special teams and conducted night patrolling in 8-10 locations. “We collected some evidence from the spots, which matched the booty that we got from the arrested persons. Based on the evidence, we are suspecting their involvement in the other incidents,” Sharma said.