Cuttack, July 12: Criminals seem to be eyeing petrol pumps as soft targets for loot in the city.

Police have foiled dacoity plans in at least two filling stations in less than 20 days, including one on Monday night. The police said two separate groups of criminals did a recce before making an attempt to loot the petrol pumps at Choudhury Bazar and Markatnagar around midnight - when there is generally lot of cash to be transported to banks in the morning.

But, timely intelligence inputs helped the police nab the armed criminals and foil their bid. The cops arrested five persons, while another five fled. Following the incident, night patrol has been increased around petrol pumps in the city.

On Monday night, the police foiled the plan to commit dacoity in the municipality petrol pump at Choudhury Bazar and arrested two persons. Intelligence inputs received by Purighat police station inspector-in-charge Tapas Pradhan late in the evening indicated that a group of criminals was planning a dacoity in a dark area on Gopaljew lane, a little away from the filling station. A five-member gang, who knew that there was heavy cash at the petrol pump, hatched the conspiracy.

Acting on the tip-off, Purighat police conducted raids there and apprehended two persons, while the other three escaped.

The cops also seized one 9mm pistol, three rounds of ammunition, one knife, one Samsung mobile phone and one Bajaj Discover motorcycle. "As the two accused were gathered at the place armed with fire arms and ammunition without any licence or authority and supposed to commit the crime, we arrested them," assistant commissioner of police Anil Mishra said.

The two accused have been identified as Bibek Mukhi of Matha Sahi and Sidhant Barik of Bakhrabad. Mukhi had been named in several criminal cases registered at the police stations at Purighat and Manglabag.

The police had foiled another dacoity plan in the petrol pump at Markatnagar on June 21 night.

"Acting on a tip-off, we were able to intercept the criminals before they could make an attempt to commit the dacoity," Markatnagar police station inspector-in-charge Debendra Kumar Biswal said.

Biswal had received information that criminals were planning to commit dacoity at the deserted Gundicha temple at Sector-I of Markatnagar. They were five in number and targeting the petrol pump near the Aswini hospital.

The police had arrested three persons after a raid on the spot, while two persons managed to escape. The cops had also seized one 7.62mm pistol, five rounds of live ammunition, one Micromax mobile phone and Rs 6,800 in cash from their possession.

The three nabbed were identified as Jitendra Bastia of Tulsipur, Tismar Khan of Shankarpur and Ashok Kumar Behera of Jagatpur.