Pictures by Badrika Nath Das
Cuttack, May 21: City police claimed to have busted a chain snatching gang, which targeted women on desolate roads, with the arrest of two members of the group on Friday.
The gang, with a dozen members, had been active in the city and was involved in more than ten snatching cases in the past two months, the police said. Though several cases were reported with the cops, yet the gang members managed to evade arrest.
The arrested persons, identified as Milan Lenka, 26, and Ranjan Kumar Barik, 33, of Jobra, have been taken into police remand.
"Six gold chains and a motorcycle have been recovered from their possession," said deputy commissioner of police Sanjeev Arora.
The police busted the gang while investigating into one of the chain-snatching cases. The incident took place when Manorama Behera, a staff nurse of S.C.B. Medical College Hospital, was returning to home on her two-wheeler about 2.30pm on May 13. Manorama said in her complaint at the Manglabag police station that when she was driving on the Mahanadi Ring Road near Bhubanananda Odisha School of Engineering, two unidentified persons came on a motorcycle and snatched her gold chain and fled. Acting on the complaint, the police stations at Mangalabag, Bidanasi and Malgodown were alerted to track the culprits.
The cops nabbed both the accused with the help of local informers.
"During interrogation, both the accused confessed to have snatched the gold chain from Manorama. They also said that they were involved in a series of chain snatching cases in the Cuttack Urban Police District area," Arora said.
Further investigation into the criminal antecedents of the two accused revealed that both were allegedly involved in snatching cases registered at the Manglabag, Bidanasi, Cantonment, Badambadi, Markatnagar and Barang police stations in the past two months.
"During the verification it was ascertained that the motorcycle seized from their possession was stolen from Barang and they used it in various criminal cases," Arora said. The cops said the six gold chains seized from the possession were approximately worth Rs 1.2 lakh.
