Bhubaneswar, Feb. 14: Police today detained eight activists of the Bajrang Dal and the Kalinga Sena while they were trying to force their way into a mall at Saheed Nagar to stop couples from celebrating Valentine's Day.

Sources said that around 50 activists tried to storm the mall and the police prevented them. The police said they had also seized as many as 25 motorcycles belonging to the activists. The activists allegedly threatened the young lovebirds, saying they would take them to temples, invite their parents and force them to marry each other.

The police also resorted to a mild lathicharge to disperse the activists, who had organised a motorbike rally protesting against Valentine's Day.

Fearing trouble, the authorities of Ekamra Kanan, a popular garden, shut down the park today and took the opportunity to carry out maintenance work. Several other parks, including the Indira Gandhi and Biju Patnaik ones, wore a deserted look with couples keeping away fearing trouble.

A cop said 10 platoons of police had been deployed at various parks, malls and cafeterias in the city to prevent any untoward incidents."We have placed two sections of strike force at each police station in the city.Senior police officials and inspectors have been asked to supervise their teams to check eve-teasing, vulgarity and cases of couples being harassed," said police commissioner R.P. Sharma.

In another incident, the police today arrested three persons on charges of looting electronic gadgets worth Rs 4 crore from a warehouse near Pahala on February 9. The police have recovered 522 mobile phones, 204 tablets, 215 laptops, 2,200 pen drives and other computer accessories worth Rs 3 crore from the accused.

The accused have been identified as Ramesh Mallik, 30, Manoj Kumar Mandal, 26, and Manoj Kumar Rout, 20.

However, four other accused, including the mastermind of the crime, are yet to be nabbed.

The police said the accused had overpowered the security guard deployed in the warehouse and decamped with the gadgets. "They attacked him with a knife and took away the valuables in two vehicles. The mastermind behind the crime was a security guard. The stolen materials were recovered from two places," said the police commissioner.