Keonjhar May 8: Close on the heels of the arrest of six members of an inter-state gang of dacoits, the district’s Barbil police has achieved another major success in nabbing eight more notorious robbers. They were forwarded to court today and were later remanded in judicial custody as their bail pleas were rejected.

The dacoits have been identified as Syamsunder Munda of Mangalpur, Radhesyam Patra of Kankadapal, Brundaban Sanagi of Kolha Roida, Pandu Soy of Camp Hating, Suleman Munda of Roida, Raju Oram of Chakradharpur and Satish Buruli of Singhbhum.

Three country-made pistols, one mauser pistol, 16 live bullets, six mobile phones and four motorcycles were seized from them.

The gang was active in Jharkhand and Orissa for the past couple of years.

“The dacoits were wanted in 19 different cases of loot, extortion and dacoity under Barbil, Joda and Rugudi police stations. Their involvement in other cases in other districts is also suspected. We arrested them from an isolated place at Rugudi while they were preparing to commit an offence,” said K.C. Parida, inspector-in-charge of Barbil police station.

The arrested criminals, who were operating in the mineral rich Joda, Barbil, Bolani and Rugudi areas of Keonjhar, were also active in Jharkhand, the police said.

The police claimed to have arrested 19 inter-state dacoits in a month. “With their arrest, we hope criminal activities will come down here,” Parida added.