Bhubaneswar, July 26: Six members of a gang of chain-snatchers and motorcycle thieves were detained by the Khandagiri police last night. The police have also recovered 15 gold chains and six motorbikes from the goons.
The goons were detained in the wake of a sustained drive by the police after a series of snatching incidents in the city. Two of the snatchers were picked up from Balasore last night, two from Bhubaneswar while the rest from other parts of the state. The police said the detainees also included a goldsmith from Kendrapara, who had bought the stolen jewellery.
Several teams of police, including the special squad, had been conducting the raids. The raids were intensified after two goons had snatched a gold chain at Jagannath Vihar colony in Baramunda on July 23 morning. The snatchers, however, had managed to escape. Two motorcycle-borne youths snatched two gold chains from Sandhyarani Sundarai, a homemaker, who was returning to her house after dropping her daughter at a coaching centre. The goons attacked her as she stopped to pluck flowers from the roadside. She had a scuffle with the goons, who whipped out guns when people started gathering. Though the criminals managed to escape, the mobile phone of one of them fell at the spot and was seized by the police.
A senior police officer said they located the goons at Balasore after tracking their mobile phones. Moreover, the mobile phone also led the cops to locate other gang members. After locating these goons, several teams had been formed and criminals were picked up during simultaneous raids at various places.
“We seized several stolen ornaments and motorcycles from them,” said a police officer.
The police have detained them to recover more stolen property. “We are verifying the seized material. Moreover, we hope to recover much more from them. We will forward them to the court tomorrow,” said the officer, adding that as investigation was going on, the details of these goons could not be divulged. They also said the gang might have more members.
