Criminals arrested by the police in Cuttack on Wednesday. Picture by Badrika Nath Das

Cuttack, Aug. 27: Following a weeklong operation, police today arrested eight criminals, which included two arms dealers. The cops also recovered three pistols, 18 rounds of ammunition (7.65mm), four empty magazines, one sharp cutting automatic knife, seven mobile phones and one motorcycle from them.

Police commissioner R.P. Sharma today said the duo, identified as Pravat Behera and Sujit Nayak, were nabbed after Choudwar police arrested three goons for planning a robbery last evening. A pistol and seven rounds of bullets were seized from their possession.

During investigation, the trio, Sarbeswar Mohanty, Basudev Das and Jaga Samal, informed the police that they had procured the arms from Pravat and Sujit of Jagatsinghpur district.

“Our special team today nabbed two arms dealers, who had been getting weapons from Munger in Bihar,” said Sharma.

The police commissioner said they were keeping an eye on the dealers’ movement after Chauliaganj police arrested the three from Mahanadi Vihar on July 17.

“We have identified three routes — Jagatsinghpur, Puri and Berhampur — which are used by the goons to bring in weapons from other states. Arms are being brought from Bihar and supplied to customers in Cuttack and Bhubaneswar,” Sharma said.

Odisha police will seek assistance from its Bihar counterpart to arrest the people from whom the dealers have procured arms, he said.

The police commissioner said Pravat and Sujit had procured nearly 10 firearms from one Mahesh Bihari from Munger in the past two years.

The duo had also supplied weapons to Niranjan Behera of Mancheswar, Fakira Mohan Bihari and Santosh Swain of Cuttak Sadar, Rinku Behera, Jagabhoi Behera and Kaia of Jagatsinghpur district.

The police said two pistols and 11 rounds of ammunition were recovered from Niranjan Behera and Santosh Swain, who were petty contractors and had procured the firearms at Rs 35,000 each.

A senior official said the police had seized over 80 firearms from criminals in Cuttack and Bhubaneswar in the past one year.

In another development, Choudwar police foiled a bid to loot a petrol pump and arrested six criminals last night. A pistol, five rounds of ammunition and sharp weapons were recovered from their possession.

Jagatpur police, on the other hand, recovered a country-made pistol from one Sambhunath Mishra of Kendrapada, while he was demanding extortion money from a businessman last night.