Cuttack, June 14: Police foiled possible robberies on the eve of the Raja festival by arresting seven dacoits from two different places in the city.

Three persons were arrested while they were planning to commit a robbery last night. According to police sources, the gang members had assembled near Professorpada around 8.30pm.

Acting on a tip-off, police raided the place and nabbed the trio from the spot. The accused have been identified as Sanjay Nath, 29, alias Sanju of Nuagaon in Jajpur, Chagulu Jena, 22 and Gautam Jena, 20, of Kalinganagar. Though three members of the gang from Jajpur were nabbed from the spot, two others managed to escape.

Police sources said as many as 15 criminal cases including murder and robbery were registered against Chagulu and Gautam Jena.

In another incident, Malgodown police has arrested four members of a dacoity gang from the Sikharpur area. The gang had assembled near Kamalakanta Bidypitha around 1pm and was planning to commit a robbery at Mahanadi Vihar. Two motorcycles and two sharp weapons were found on them .

The accused have been identified as Rabindra Jena and Jitu Jena of Buguda in Ganjam, Laxmidhar Paswan of Bihar’s Samastipur and Rati Ranjan Satpathy. Both Rabindra and Jitu, who hail from Ganjam, were staying at Sikharpur Upparasahi in the city for the past few months.

“We have arrested seven persons who were planning to commit robbery at different places in the city last night,” said deputy commissioner of police Praveen Kumar today.