Bhubaneswar, May 27: A listed criminal today attacked Puri town police inspector B.N. Mohanty with a revolver butt when the police officer tried to overpower him. Mohanty sustained serious injuries on his head and was shifted to SCB Medical College.

Deputy superintendent of police (DSP), Puri, R.K. Paikray said when inspector Mohanty noticed Bhakta Das, a noted criminal, near College Square, he tried to catch him. Bhakta and another known criminal Sibani Panda were wanted by the police in a dozen cases. The officer managed to get hold of him from behind. While Sibani ran away, Bhakta took out a revolver and hit Mohanty’s head with its butt.

“Despite suffering grievous wounds, inspector Mohanty managed to arrest Bhakta. We have intensified an operation to arrest Panda. Criminals in Puri town will be dealt with an iron hand,” Paikray said.

In another incident, a special squad of the excise department today seized 4kg of brown sugars worth Rs 4 crore in Puri.

Excise commissioner Sudarshan Nayak said: “We had engaged a decoy for the last few months on the movement of the courier. The decoy customer had bought brown sugar from the accused persons five times. While they were coming to Puri town in a car today, our team laid a trap and caught them near Atharanala.”

Excise officials said they had got the tip-off after they had arrested a woman, Jharana Panda, last month for carrying the contraband item. “The two arrested persons were Shyama Das, a resident of Puri and Tarachand Hadiwalla from Madhya Pradesh,” said an excise department official.

Excise official Amaresh Jena said, brown sugar was being brought from Rajasthan. “We know that the gang operating in Rajasthan has links with Afghanistan and regularly supplies drugs to different parts of the country,” he said.