Bhubaneswar, June 15: The search of easy money to satisfy the needs of his girlfriend forced an engineering student here to join a gang of vehicle thieves that was busted by police today.

The cops arrested five persons, including two engineering students and one management student, and recovered an SUV and four motorcycles.

The police have also seized one revolver and two live cartridges from the accused.

The accused have been identified as Arun Mallik, 32, the gang leader, Rakesh Nayak, 22, Khitish Puhan, 24, both BTech students, Ranjit Choudhury, 22, a management student and Kalia Sethy, 23.

The police said Khitish, a native of Balasore and a fourth-year BTech student, got hooked to the crime for easy money. "He got in contact with Mallik, who is also a native of Balasore district, a few years ago and subsequently lured the two other students into the gang," said a police officer.

The police said the gang had contacted a vehicle owner in Puri on June 9 and requested to hire his Mahindra Scorpio saying that they would drop a patient in Bhubaneswar.

While four accused sat in the four-wheeler, another gang member followed the vehicle in a motorcycle.

Later, the motorcyclists stopped the vehicle near Pitapalli and all of them managed to overpower the driver of the vehicle with a knife. They tied the driver to a tree in a forest and fled with the car. A case was registered with Chandaka police station.

"During investigation, we zeroed it on a vehicle-stealing gang in Balasore and arrested the mastermind, Arun Mallik. Subsequently, the other four were held. Mallik was involved in around 20 cases including robbery, dacoity and murder, in Balasore district. We suspect the gang is also involved in a number of vehicle-stealing cases in Bhubaneswar as well. Further investigation is on to ascertain the antecedents of other accused," said police commissioner R.P. Sharma.

The involvement of students, especially engineering students, in crimes such as robbery and snatching has become a major worry for the police.

The cops have been conducting interactive sessions with engineering students to dissuade them from committing crimes. Around two dozen engineering students have been arrested in past 18 months for their involvement in crimes such as robbery.

"A number of students, especially engineering students, are lured into crime for leading a flashy lifestyle," said a cop.