Cuttack, Sept. 19: Police have arrested three more persons and claim to have cracked the August 14 loot of around Rs 14 lakh cash at gunpoint from office of an electronics equipment stockist at Chandi Chakh.

Eight masked men had entered the office with pistols and daggers at 5.25pm, disconnected the CCTV camera and carried out the robbery.

They had allegedly decamped with Rs 14 lakh in cash after locking the office from outside.

The robbery plan at Shree Adinath Agencies was allegedly hatched by an employee, Kuldeep Sahu, 32, of Mahamadia Bazar, his brother-in-law Girish Chandra Sahoo and a professional criminal called Loknath Sahu.

The police started investigation into the case after Ananta Agarwal, a partner of Shree Adinath Agencies, lodged a complaint at Cantonment police station on August 15.

Investigations revealed Kuldeep, the mastermind, had first shared his plan with Girish.

After being convinced, Girish contacted Loknath. Later, six other criminals were brought on board. When the robbery took place, Kuldeep had stayed out of office only to turn up after the masked robbers had left with the cash and locked it from outside, police said.

'During investigation, we made the first breakthrough on the basis of CCTV footage after nabbing Jitendra Dash, 24, of Kandarpur and Girish Chandra Sahoo, 29, of Mansinghpatana on August 28,' Cantonment police station inspector-in-charge Biswajit Mohanty said.

'Then our suspicion turned to Kuldeep Sahu because he was found to have gone missing after some days of the incident. Subsequently, Kuldeep was arrested along with Gautam Samal, 25, of Kandarpur and Sk Saib, 23, of Buxi Bazar yesterday. Rs 2.36 lakh in cash, one pistol, one dagger, and five mobile phones used during in the crime were seized from their possession,' Mohanty said.

Earlier during arrest of Jitendra and Girish on August 28, the police had seized Rs 81,000 in cash, a Pulsar motorcycle and one iron dagger.

The cops said four other persons with criminal antecedents involved in the robbery were absconding. Investigations had revealed that all the nine partners in crime had gathered on the rooftop of a club at Nima Sahi on the night of August 14, shared the loot equally, and dispersed.

Anganwadi strike

The Anganwadi workers and helpers' strike under the banner of All Odisha Anganwadi Ladies Workers' Association, has entered its 12th day with the protesters continuing to demand an increase in pay and better perks.

Thousands of Anganwadi workers and helpers have been sitting on dharna near the Lower PMG pressing for their demands.

They are demanding hike in the minimum pay of the workers and helpers to Rs 18,000 and Rs 9,000 a month respectively.