Cuttack: Police have arrested a criminal, Budhia Nahak, for his involvement in a series of crimes.

Budhia, a Nayagarh resident, was injured in an encounter with the police while trying to resist arrest by open firing at the cops at Gopalpur. The police have seized two loaded pistols and ammunition from him.

Cuttack deputy commissioner of police Akhileswar Singh said: "Budhia Nahak, 30, is involved in more than 19 heinous crimes in Nayagarh and Khurda districts which involved serious breach of peace in public."

"Besides, he is wanted in a murder case in Bishnupur police limits in Jamshepur," Singh said.

Cuttack Sadar police station got a tip-off around 8.30pm on Thursday that Budhia was moving around under suspicious circumstances on the NH near the old toll gate at Gopalpur and waiting for his criminal associates to commit crime in Cuttack.

Accordingly, sub-inspector K.S. Barad and other cops proceeded to apprehend him. Budhia immediately started escaping by riding a Pulsar motorcycle when the police approached near him.

The cops then chased him and signalled to him to stop. But instead of stopping, he first tried to escape and then losing balance he left the motorcycle and started running through the Gopalpur-Badhei Sahi road.

But when the police chased him, Budhia immediately fired. The bullet luckily did not hit anybody, the police said.

When Budhia again tried to fire at Barad, the sub-inspector - in order to save the life of police personnel and in self-defence - opened one round of controlled firing aiming below the waist which hit the right leg of the criminal. Budhia suffered bleeding injury and was shifted to SCB Medical College Hospital.