Araria police on Sunday claimed to have busted a gang allegedly involved in two bank robberies after the arrest of five persons from Bathnaha area of the district on Saturday.
The police also recovered Rs 1.8 lakh, which was looted from the State Bank of India Gitwas branch on August 25.
Acting on a tip-off, a police team headed by Araria sub-divisional police officer (SDPO) K.D. Singh conducted a raid at the hideouts of the anti-socials on Saturday. Five members of the gang were picked up from there and subsequently quizzed by the police at an undisclosed location.
During interrogation, the arrested persons - Chandra Kishore Mandal, Vikas Mandal, Anand Mandal, Suraj Mandal and Raj Kumar Mandal - confessed to the crime. Later, the police raided their hideouts under Simraha police station area and seized Rs 1.8 lakh, two motorbikes and five mobile phones.
Newly appointed Araria superintendent of police Dhurat Sayali Sablaram said the goons had looted Rs 4 lakh from the employees of the State Bank of India near Gitwas village under the jurisdiction of Raniganj police station on August 25 this year.
The arrested members, who were set to leave for Delhi from Bathnaha bus stand in Araria, confessed to their involvement in the loot in Bandhan Bank also and from an employee of a private finance company recently.
'They have been arrested for the first time,' the SP said. The police initiated action against the gangsters on the basis of closed-circuit television camera footage from the bank. 'The probe is based on scientific evidence,' he said.