Bhubaneswar, Oct. 12: Members of two gangs were arrested yesterday for burglary and articles worth Rs 9 lakh were seized from them. The seized items included motorcycles, computers, laptops and other electronic gadgets.

The Cuttack-Bhubaneswar police said while investigating a burglary case, the Khandagiri police came across the gang, which consisted of three members from Jadupur in Dumuduma area. The trio was identified as Sayed Mumtaz, Mohammad Tasif and Manjur Ali. Ali was arrested for receiving the stolen articles.

“We arrested them from Dumuduma area yesterday and seized several stolen articles such as computers, laptops, motorcycles, mobile phones and several other electronic gadgets from them,” said a police officer.

While inquiring into another burglary case, which had occurred on October 11, the police arrested five members of another gang. The officer said the accused were Nilamadhaba Nayak, Manoranjan Nayak, Dillip Nayak, Bikram Nayak and Bhagaban Nayak and they all belonged to the Bharatpur slum under Khandagiri police station.

They added that while the first four were arrested for burglary, Bhagaban was arrested for receiving the stolen items. Besides motorcycles and household electronic articles, the police seized some gold and silver ornaments from the gang.

The deputy commissioner of police (DCP), Nitinjit Singh, said that these gangs included burglars and receivers of the stolen properties. They had been involved in several burglary cases at the Khandagiri area in the last two months. They were also active at Khandagiri and Nayapalli.

Talking about their modus operandi, the DCP said that they broke into houses when the occupants were away. They used to search for such houses in their locality and operate during the night by breaking in. “We have seized five motorcycles, four computers, two laptops, eight DVD players, six LCD televisions, two stabilizers, two mixer grinders, 13 mobile phones, 20gms of gold ornaments and 50gs of silver ornaments.

Other electronic household gadgets have also been seized from these two gangs. These stolen materials would add up to more than Rs 9 lakh,” said the DCP, adding that these articles would be handed over to their owners.

He also said that further investigations were going on to find out whether any other people were involved in these burglaries. “We are inquiring into the criminal antecedents of these accused persons,” the DCP added.