Cuttack, May 28: Police arrested the 35-year-old employee of a jewellery shop, who fled with more than 1.3kg gold about a month ago, when he returned to the city this morning.

Chandan Kumar Saha was taken into custody at Cuttack railway station shortly after he got down from the train. The accused was unable to sell the gold as most of it was in the form of pure gold bar of 1kg, the police said.

Chandan, who hails from Motihan within Daiapur police limits of Chhapra district of Bihar, used to work at Sai Alankar, a jewellery shop at Balu Bazaar. He is the shop owner Parasnath Saha's cousin.

On May 9, Lalbag police station received a complaint that Chandan ran away with the gold, which he had been asked to deliver in Calcutta. According to the complaint, Chandan was carrying more than 1kg 337 grams 850 milligrams of gold on April 20. He boarded a bus from Cuttack to Calcutta. But, he did not deliver the gold.

The police said a special team was formed to nab Chandan. The team members visited places in Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar but failed to track him. "Acting on a tip-off, the team succeeded in nabbing Chandan at Cuttack station after he got down from the train," deputy commissioner of police Sanjeev Arora said.

The police said the gold that was recovered from his possession during the arrest included one pure gold bar of 1kg, one pure gold bar of 297 grams and a gold chain of 15 grams 700 milligrams. The recovered gold was worth around Rs 38 lakh.

Arora said Chandan confessed to have sold 25 grams and 150 milligrams of gold (worth around Rs 65,000) to various persons in Surat and Kanpur to meet his daily expenses. "He made several attempts to dispose of the entire gold but failed to do so"Around six months ago, a drug peddler in Bhubaneswar had revealed the name of Rafique during interrogation," said another excise official.