Four men were arrested on Sunday night from Samastipur in Bihar for allegedly robbing a transport company’s office in central Kolkata in September.
Five men were allegedly involved in looting Rs 75,000 from the office at gunpoint, police said.
Kaifi Babu, 23, from Lakhnipur Maheshpatty of Ujiarpur in Bihar’s Samastipur district, had returned to Bihar after his short stay in Kolkata but had kept in touch with a few youths here with whom he had struck a friendship, an officer said.
Around 4.15pm on September 18 , Kaifi, who allegedly returned to commit the crime, and four others entered the second-floor office of Jay Matadi Paribahan Limited on Kashinath Mullick Lane in Jorasanko and looted Rs 75,000 at gunpoint. The staff were asked to clear the cashbox before the team left.
Four of the five were arrested late on Sunday from their homes across Samastipur in Bihar. One of them is a juvenile, the police said.
The fifth person is yet to be arrested.
Of those arrested, Vijay Mahato and Kanhaiya Kumar Jha, alias Tiger 20, have admitted to their involvement in another robbery case in Kolkata.
On September 14, three armed criminals had entered a medicine shop on Malanga Lane in Bowbazar and robbed Rs 60,000. Shop employees said the gang knew exactly where the cash was kept.
“We are scanning the CCTV footage of both incidents,” said a senior officer of the detective department. “We could finally zero in on this gang from Samastipur.”
Officers probing the case said they were on the lookout for the fifth member of the gang after it appeared that Kaifi had decided to reach here after receiving specific information from one of his friends based in central Kolkata.
The person had possibly informed Kaifi about a recent bank transaction of the transport company, police said.
“The team had carried out a proper recce of the office before planning to strike in the late afternoon. It wouldn’t have been possible without a local contact,” the officer said.
Officers from the detective department probing both the incidents said that the team returned to Samastipur after committing the crime.
“The team had arrived three days before committing the first robbery in Bowbazar,” the officer said.
