Eight persons, most of them history-sheeters, were arrested on Tuesday night from Morabadi while they were planning to attack a private hospital employee and loot Rs 8 lakh from him, the development assuming significance before puja when the city usually sees a rise in the crime graph.

The crackdown is also facesaver for police who have been facing flak for rising incidence of murder, thefts and snatchings in the city in the last few days.

Acting on a tip-off, police picked up the eight persons along with arms and ammunitions from near a bush close to gate 8 of Birsa Munda Football Stadium on Tuesday night.

Those arrested are Pramarti Mishra (27), Bablu Rana (31), Rajesh Prasad (43), Sunil Kacchap (34), Mohit Kumar Verma (21), Narayan Oraon (36), Pravesh Kumar (21) and Kanhaiya Mandal (42).

Two pistols, a revolver, seven rounds of bullets, a knife, Rs 7,000 cash, 10 mobile phones, a bike and two scooters were recovered from them.

Producing them before the media on Wednesday, city SP Aman Kumar said they attempted to flee after seeing police, but had already been surrounded by then.

“A team of 17 cops led by Lalpur thana in-charge Ramod Kumar Singh reached the spot by 9.10pm. Sensing danger, they tried to escape on their two-wheelers, but we got the better of them,” the city SP said.

Asked about their criminal plan, SP (city) Kumar said they had targeted a staff of Rinchi Hospital at Kathal More.

“They had information that a staff of Rinchi Hospital would deposit Rs 8 lakh in a bank around Wednesday noon. They planned to attack him and decamp with the cash. They were also planning a series of robbery at some houses in Nagri. They had closely watched the movement of some businessmen in Pandra and wanted to target them, too,” Kumar said.

Kumar said most of the accused have a criminal history.

“Kanhaiya is the mastermind. He had organised the gang with the help of Rajesh Prasad. We are still in the process of compiling their criminal record,” Kumar said.

The SP said Parmarthi

and Rajesh are from Ramgarh while Bablu is from Hazaribagh.

“All the others are residents of different police station areas in Ranchi district,” Kumar added.

Security on Kanke Road, a VIP area in the heart of the capital, was breached last month when two bikers snatched from a policeman his service weapon when asked to furnish vehicle papers.

On September 7, a 36-year-old police informer had been shot dead on Kanke Road a stone’s throw from the chief minister Raghubar Das’s official residence.

On whether anyone involved in these incidents are among the eight arrested, SP Kumar answered in the negative. Asked about the steps taken to curb crimes in the city, he said bike squads had been formed and all OCs had been asked to intensify night patrolling. “Proper steps are also being taken for electronic surveillance in the city.”