Bhubaneswar, Feb. 21: Five SIMI activists, who were arrested from Rourkela, had gone broke and stole motorcycles to meet their expenses, police said.
They had also visited Cuttack looking for rented accommodation.
"During interrogation, they have confessed to stealing motorcycles in the state to meet their expenses. We are also interrogating them further to find out whether they had any plans to commit more bank robberies in the state," said a police officer.
"They had also planned to rob a bank in Janjgir Champa district of Chhattisgarh after they were left with only Rs 3,000. They had also conducted a recce of the area before being nabbed from Rourkela," said a police official.
The gang is also suspected to be involved in a bank robbery in Sundargarh district. They were also involved in the loot of Rs 46 lakh from a bank in Karimnagar in Telangana.
Besides the Odisha police, the SIMI members are also being interrogated by the Intelligence Bureau and National Investigation Agency (NIA) to ascertain their involvement in connection with cases of explosion in various parts of the country.
The police said that investigation revealed that the group had not carried out any terror activities here. "They have been using the rented place in Rourkela and Bhadrak as hideouts after committing terror attacks in other states," said a police official.
The investigating agency had also seized some jihadi literature from their Bhadrak hideout. The literature mentioned the formula for making powerful explosives.
Dhal Samant aide
Police today arrested Pramod Patra alias Bhuan, a key partner of gangster siblings - Sushant and Sushil Dhal Samant - from Cuttack.
He is the president of the Badambadi-Shankarpur Puja Committee. The cops had recovered unaccounted cash to the tune of Rs 76.20 lakh from Bhuan's residence during raid last evening.
"He had links with the Dhal Samant brothers in the tender fixing and extortion racket," said deputy commissioner of police Sanjeev Arora.
Additional reporting by Vikash Sharma in Cuttack
