Cuttack: Police claimed to have busted a chain-snatching gang that targeted women in desolated stretches following the arrest of two members of the group on Saturday.

The six-member gang was involved in least six incidents of snatching, the cops said. Though several cases were reported against them the gang managed to evade arrest.

The arrested have been identified as, Bikash Nayak, 20, and Sarat Chandra Das, 36, of Jaipur and Subhadrapur, respectively.

"Six gold chains, one motorcycle and one scooter were recovered from their possession," said deputy commissioner of police Akhiileswar Singh.

The police busted the gang while investigating into an incident that occurred in Sector 9 in Markatnagar on May 28 when the victim, Manjulata Tripathy, was walking home from the ISKCON Temple about 7.30am.

Two unidentified persons came on a motorcycle and snatched the gold chain from Tripathy's neck and escaped. Both were about 25 to 28 years of age, Manjulata said in her complaint at the Markatnagar police station.

Acting on the complaint, the police stations at CDA Phase II, Bidanasi, Sadar Barang were alerted to track the culprits and take steps to prevent snatching cases in the desolate stretches under their limits.

The police arrested the culprits with help of local informers. "During the course of investigation it was ascertained that Bikash Nayak and Sarat Chandra Das along with Dhaneswar Pradhan had snatched the gold chain from Manjulata Tripathy. They had also snatched gold chains from different places under Markatnagar, CDA Phase II and Lalbag police stations," Singh said.

The cops said efforts are on to nab the third accused person.