Cuttack, July 12: Police foiled a robbery bid at CDA township yesterday night and arrested seven persons, including Md Saddam Hussain (22), the son of an assistant sub-inspector.
The other arrested have been identified as Jyotiranjan Mohanty (28), Yasin Ali (25), Sk Sabir (24), Satyabrata Nayak (24), Pramod Ranjan Das (32) and Sk Kalim (24).
All of them are reportedly associates of Kendrapara based-gangster Tito alias Usman Ali.
A special team of CDA Phase-II police station arrested the Tito aides from near Biju Patnaik Park at Sector 12. A 9mm pistol, a country-made single-shot gun, five rounds of live ammunition, four mobile phones and some liquor have been seized from their possession.
Deputy commissioner of police Sanjeev Arora told newspersons that Md Saddam Hussein and Sk Sabir had formed the group to carry out several crimes at the behest of Tito.
Police had earlier launched a manhunt for Sk Sabir alias Kala against whom 11 cases, including some of dacoity, attempt to murder and illegal possession of arms, have been registered in various police stations, such as Markatnagar, Lalbagh and CDA Phase-II.
Police sources said that two cases were pending against Saddam, whose father is an assistant sub-inspector at Mahanga police station in Cuttack district.
In January this year, the police had launched a special operation to nab the anti-socials belonging to other smaller groups after the arrest of notorious gangster siblings Sushant and Sushil Dhal Samant.
The cops were then successful in nabbing more than 34 associates of the Dhal Samant group in the operation against the criminals in the city.
In the last five months, 17 associates belonging to the Tito gang have also been nabbed.
On June 18, the cops had arrested Sayed Motaquid aka Muna Laden, Firoz Khan, Prafulla Jena, Sangram Rout and Amulya Mahali. A semi-automatic pistol, two motorcycles, sharp weapons and six mobile phones were seized from them.
In another incident, police are contemplating to book Ranjan Bhuyan, a criminal of Baranga, under the National Security Act. Bhuyan was arrested today in connection with a bombing at Baranga on July 11 in which three persons were injured.
