Cuttack, July 17: Five members of a criminal gang that was involved in a series of dacoity and extortions in the city were arrested during a raid at an isolated place near Gurukhetra at Sikharpur around 1am today.

Two mausers, one country-made pistol, four live bullets, sharp weapons, three mobile phones, chilli powder and an Indigo car were recovered from their possession. The accused were Sanjay Das alias Chotu, 27, Kalia alias Prashant Sahoo, 26, and Saroj Das, 32, of Jagatsinghpur, Chittaranjan Das, 25, and Seikh Ramjan, 25, of Cuttack.

“All the criminals are involved in a series of crimes in Cuttack and Jagatsinghpur districts. We are suspecting their links with few other gangsters,” said deputy commissioner of police S. Praveen Kumar. A senior police official said three accused, including Chotu and Chittaranjan Das, had hurled the bomb on a constable at a dhaba on the National Highway No. 5 on June 14. The incident had occurred when the constable of Sadar police had gone to a Dhaba for lunch.

Later, the criminals had fled towards Cuttack in an Indica car. The gang had allegedly demanded an extortion of Rs 10 lakh from a liquor trader at Jagatpur.

The goons had also detained a trader Sruti Sekhara Das and fired two rounds of bullets on his car to terrorise him on June 5.