Cuttack, June 7: Police have arrested nine members of an inter-district gang involved in stealing 13 trucks and dismantling the vehicles for smuggling the parts outside the state.

The police busted the gang yesterday. Assistant commissioner of police Anil Kumar Mishra said the accused had stolen the trucks from Cuttack and neighbouring districts. The cops found that the trucks had been taken to Balasore, dismantled at a workshop and later the parts were smuggled to Calcutta and cities in other states.

"The gang was using a silver Maruti Swift car without any registration number," Mishra said.

The theft came to light when a truck owner lodged a complaint at Badambadi police station, saying his truck, which he had parked near his house at Khannagar on April 20 evening, was stolen the next morning. A team, led by inspector-in-charge Biranch Narayan Pati, was formed to track down the suspects and arrest them.

The police identified the two suspects - Md Iliash, 38, of Badchana in Jajpur district and Jagabandhu Bisoi, 23, of Badamba in Cuttack district - from the CCTV footage of cameras installed at a shop in Khannagar and the tollgates at Manguli and Panikoili.

Later, they tracked them to their hideaway in the city on Monday following the arrest of a member of the gang. The team managed to identify the other suspects linked to the theft.

The other six accused have been identified as Prasanta Das, 24, Narendra Pratap Rout, 24, Ganesh Nayak, 21, Jyoti Prakash Mohanty, 23, Pintu Das, 21, and Hemanta Rout, 31.

The police identified the dealer of the stolen trucks - a scrap trader at Remuna near Balasore. He used to dismantle the vehicle in his workshop and facilitated the process of smuggling of the engine, chassis, gearbox, fuel tank and other parts of the vehicle outside the state.

"During investigation, it was established that all the nine accused were involved in a series of truck theft cases," Mishra said. They are allegedly involved in 13 cases of truck theft registered at police stations in Badambadi, Madhupatna, Chauliaganj (all in Cuttack city), Barang, Tangi, Infocity, Paradip and Jajpur.

The key players of the gang, along with other associates, were staying in rented houses at Dolamundai and Pithapur. The gang used to move around at night in the car and targeted trucks parked on roadside. After breaking the door, they managed to start it and drive the vehicle via Chandikhol to the workshop of scrap dealer Shasikant Shaw at Remuna, the police said.