Cuttack: Police busted a gang of five criminals involved in theft and burglary here on Thursday. The gang committed the crime during daytime at homes where the family members were absent.

The cops recovered 350 grams of gold, two kg of silver ornaments, two laptops, one electronic weighing machine and one motorcycle.

The CDA Phase II police station had received a complaint from Farid Khan of Sector 11 that criminals had entered his house by breaking the lock of the main door. They took away gold ornaments, a laptop, Rs 40,000 cash and his PAN card and Aadhar card.

The robbery occurred when Farid had gone out to attend a reception around 3.45pm on April 4 with his family, the complaint said.

A special squad investigating into the case got a tip off on Thursday that the persons involved in the burglary were in Banki of Cuttack district.

Accordingly, the five suspects were tracked and picked up. They were identified as Manoj Kumar Singh, 34, Pravat Kumar Singh, 60, Basant Kumar Sahu,54, of Baideswar in Cuttack district and Manoj Khatua, 35, of Banki and Sadasiv Bishnu Shirke ,36, of Begunia in Khurda district. The cops recovered material used to melt gold and silver and a Sony power bank from them.

The cops said during interrogation the accused persons disclosed that they had committed the robbery at Sector 11. Deputy commissioner of police Akhileswar Singh said: "On thorough interrogation it was found that the accused persons are notorious criminals who committed theft and burglary with their associates."

"The accused persons disclosed that they had committed theft and burglaries in areas under various police stations - Bidanasi, Markatnagar (Cuttack), Nsyapalli, Chandrasekharpur (Bhubaneswar), Dhenkanal, Nayagarh and Bargarh. The probe is on and the involvement of the accused persons in other offences is being verified," Singh said.

The cops suspect that the gang has more members and is trying to nab them.

Fraud cuffs

The economic offences wing on Friday arrested a 37-year-old person in connection with a Rs 67-lakh bank fraud that had taken place in 2006. The accused, Soumya Ranjan Nanda, and 38 others had impersonated themselves as as teachers and employees of an orphanage and special school at Nuapada in Cuttack district and had availed personal loans from the SBI's Malgodown branch in Cuttack.