Baripada: Rairangpur police busted an interstate racket that was involved in stealing tractors and water tankers.

The cops arrested five criminals, including a minor, and two water tankers, a tractor and a SUV were seized from their possession .

The minor accused was produced before the Juvenile Justice Board, while the other accused persons identified as Rajani Kumar Mahanta, Mithun Mahant, and Sridhar Mahanta, who are residents of Judia village, and Pankaj Mahant of Gopinathpur village were produced before the court. The accused were sent to jail on rejection of their bail pleas.

The cops unearthed the racket when they were investigating a case of a missing water tanker lodged by the owner, Rupendra Hembram. According to the complainant, the water tanker which Hembram engaged in a brick kiln in Gopinathpur was missing. Another complaint was lodged by Basant Barik of Bahalda stating that his water tanker was also missing.

One of the water tankers was seized from the house of Ranjjit Chaudhary, resident of Tirsing village in Kuali police limits of Jharkhand while a missing tractor was seized from Judia village. The police seized another tractor from Bahalda which belonged to Madua Badara of Chainbasha in Jharkhand which they stole in December last year.

"They used to hide the stolen articles in hilly areas and later sold them at Rs 1 lakh to Rs 1.5 lakh to the customers," said Rairangpur sub divisional police officer Amulya Kumar Dhir.