Bhubaneswar, June 17: Police today arrested four members of a gang, including three women, who used to rob people between Rajamahal Square and Master Canteen Square in the evening after luring them with sex.

The police said the three women - all aged around 18 - used to lure passengers coming out of the Bhubaneswar railway station with offers of sex and take them to isolated places.

"There, the associates of the girls used to threaten the victims with sharp weapons and take off with their valuables," said a police official.

Police arrested the three women after they trapped a 32-year-old man last night.

"The accused took away a gold chain, money and mobile phones from the complainant. Subsequently, we busted the gang and recovered the gold chain," said inspector in charge of Capital police station M.R. Garanaik.

The police said the gang had been active around the station area for past few months and most often, the victims did not approach the police due to embarrassment.

"We are further verifying their antecedents. We suspect them to be involved in around 12 such cases in the past two months," said a police official.

Kharavela Nagar police on June 5 had arrested five women for similar crime around the station area.

"A number of sex workers from Mali Sahi, the red light area of the city, have switched over to such crimes for the easy money. Several pimps are helping them with this," said the police official.

Tech students held

Nayapalli police today arrested three youths, including two engineering students, for their involvement in robbery cases in the city.

The accused have been identified as Lingaraj Behera, 24, Tarini Sen Pradhan, 22 and Subham Prasad Sahu, 22. The police said both Tarini and Subham were final-year BTech students at a city-based private college.

Police have seized three motorcycles, three mobile phones and sharp weapons from them. "The gang used to chase cars and motorcycles, intercept them and later loot valuables by threatening them with sharp weapons. They were robbing people on the stretch of the national highway passing through the city," said a police official.