Bhubaneswar, Aug. 8: Police arrested five youths, including a bachelor of computer application student, while they were allegedly planning to commit a robbery at Mancheswar last night. The cops have seized two pistols and five live bullets from them.

The accused were identified as Suryakanta Mohapatra, 27, Saroj Kumar Moharana, 25, Trinath Behera, 26, Gautam Mandal, 26, and Subash Santosh Rout, the 22-year-old student of a local institute.

The police said Moharana worked at a bar at Jatni, while Behera was a bouncer at a city multiplex. Behera had several cases of extortion pending against him at various police stations across the state. Mohapatra is a driver.

“Preliminary investigations revealed that Mohapatra was the leader and the group was planning to rob a house. Further investigation is on to ascertain the details of crimes committed by the gang,” said police commissioner R.P. Sharma.

The seizure of arms again establishes the arms smuggling link to Munger in Bihar. The police said the arms reached petty criminals from Bihar through Puri and Berhampur.

“So far, a number of seized arms had been procured by middlemen from Munger. We are trying to nab the middlemen involved in the racket,” said Sharma. The cops said petty criminals were procuring illegal arms by paying anything between Rs 30,000 and Rs 50,000.

The cops have seized around 70 guns from the twin cities of Cuttack and Bhubaneswar in the past eight months.

The involvement of students, especially engineering students, in robbery and snatching cases has become a matter of concern for the police.

“We will conduct awareness drives in colleges, especially engineering institutes, to prevent students from committing crimes,” said a police official.