Bhubaneswar, March 10: Police today busted a gang of dacoits by arresting six youths, including the gang leader, an engineering student.

The accused were identified as Papuni Majhi, 22, of Ganjam, Bhaskar Ray Pritam, 23, of Khurda, Suresh Kumar Barik, 20, Papu Mallik, 19, Biswajit Swain, 20, and Badal Swain, 20, all of them belonging to Jagatsinghpur. Gang leader Bhaskar Ray Pritam, whose father is a former army man, is a fourth-year BTech student, while Papuni Majhi a Plus II second-year student.

The gang has been involved in 21 cases in Cuttack, Bhubaneswar and Jagatsinghpur. The cops also seized four motorcycles, three of which were stolen, a country-made pistol, 15 country-made bombs, four live bullets, four empty shells and other sharp weapons. The police arrested the criminals when they were allegedly preparing to commit a dacoity in the city.

The police said the gang was mainly involved in dacoities at petrol pumps at Jatni and Balianta. “They would visit the petrol pumps on the pretext of refilling and loot the cash from the employees at gunpoint,” said police commissioner R.P. Sharma.

Though all the accused are in the age group between 20 and 23, the cops said they had been committing crimes since 2009. “Papu, Biswajit and Badal have started committing crime since they were 15. We will take them all on remand to find out their involvement in other crimes in the city. We will also contact concerned police stations to find out their antecedents,” said Sharma.

The gang members used to live in rented accommodations in the city, which they changed frequently. The gang is involved in around 10 cases of dacoity in the city in past two months. The seizure of a huge number of country-made bombs has thrown the police into a tizzy. “They had kept the bombs in an iron box — which suggests that they were planning a bigger crime,” said a police official.