The seized pistol and phones. Telegraph picture

Bhubaneswar, May 19: Two persons, including an engineering student, were arrested today for possessing an illegal pistol and ammunition.

Rakesh Kumar Bairiganjan, 21, a second-year engineering student of a private college in Khurda, and Tusarakanta Tarania, 41, were arrested under the Arms Act.

Apart from the illegal firearm, police also seized four rounds of live bullets and two empty magazines from the accused.

“We had specific information about the two and subsequently a trap was laid. Both of them were arrested near Kendriya Vidyalaya in Satya Nagar while they were travelling in a car,” said inspector in-charge of Kharvela Nagar police station Nihar Ranjan Pradhan.

Rakesh, son of a civil contractor, stayed in Satya Nagar, while scrap dealer Tarania is a resident of Sailashree Vihar.

The police said that Tarania had been arrested twice in the past in connection with petty crime. The cops suspect that both of them were planning to commit a crime when they were nabbed.

“We suspect Rakesh might have procured the gun from Puri. We are trying to nab the middlemen,” said a senior police official.

This is the second incident of seizure of illegal arms in the last 48 hours.

The police yesterday had arrested four dacoits and seized a pistol, six live bullets, two country-made bombs and sharp-edged weapons from them. The goons were arrested while they were planning to commit dacoity at Kalinga Nagar under Khandagiri police limits.

Involvement of students, especially those studying engineering, in crime has become a major concern for the city police.

On March 10, the police had arrested a gang of six dacoits, including an engineering student, and had seized a country-made pistol, 15 country-made bombs and four rounds of bullets from their possession.

The gang leader Bhaskar Ray Pritam was a fourth-year BTech student in a city-based institute and one of his accomplish, Papuni Majhi, was a Plus Two second-year student.

The police said at least a dozen of students, mostly those studying engineering, have been arrested during the last four months in connection with several criminal incidents, including murder.

Though the city police had decided to keep a database of engineering students, the police are yet to start the process.

“Shortly, we will start preparing a database of engineering students in association with the concerned institutes,” said a senior police officer.