Cuttack, Aug. 30: The arrest of four members of a chain snatching gang yesterday has come as a big success for police who claimed to have busted a racket that ran riot here and in Bhubaneswar for the past few months.

The gang targeted women on desolate stretches and snatched ornaments from them. They were allegedly involved in at least eight cases of snatching in Cuttack and Bhubaneswar in the past few months, police said. Despite the cops being on the lookout, the gang had managed to elude them for so long.

The arrested have been identified as Amit Singh, 23, of Badambadi, Sayed Sadam, 26, of Chandni Chowk and Chandrasekhar Mohapatra, 32, and Diptiranjan Subudhi, 35, of Khurda. The quartet have since been remanded to jail custody.

"We recovered seven gold chains, worth Rs 1.5 lakh, and a motorcycle from their possession," Markatnagar police station inspector-in-charge Debendra Biswal said.

The police busted the gang while investigating a snatching case at Markatnagar on August 25. The incident occurred when Ratna Banerjee, a resident of Firingi Bazaar, was on her way to her sister's house at Sector-VIII in Markatnagar with her brother on a two-wheeler.

Around 5pm, when they were near Sector-VIII, two persons came on a motorcycle, snatched a gold chain from Banerjee and fled.

Acting on Banerjee's complaint, Badambadi, Purighat and Lalbag police were directed to track the culprits, while taking steps to prevent more such cases on desolate stretches of the Ring Road under their limits and the river embankment road along Markatnagar.

During investigation, the police tracked down the two culprits following a tip-off and arrested Amit and Sayed.

The police said both the accused confessed their role in the snatching case on August 25. "During interrogation, they confessed that they were part of a gang organised by Chandrasekhar and were tasked with snatching chains from different places between Khurda and Cuttack," Biswal said.

"They also confessed that they disposed of the chains through Chandrasekhar and Diptiranjan by depositing them with gold financing companies," he said.

Both Chandrasekhar and Diptiranjan were subsequently arrested. During their investigation, it was found that Sayed had disposed of one gold chain to Paras Nath Saha of Balu Bazar and another to his sister Sabina Bibi of Chandinichouk. Both were arrested for hoarding stolen property.