Seven criminals operating in the city and its southern fringes were netted on Wednesday evening from Sarsuna Sonamukhi by Thakurpukur police.

They had assembled in a house to draw up plans to burgle a jewellery shop. During the swoop, the police recovered several rounds of ammunition and seized firearms from the criminals.

Acting on a tip-off, police surrounded the house in which the criminals had taken shelter and stormed it. “The criminals tried to flee by scaling the rear boundary wall of the building. In the process, two of them fell and injured themselves.

That foiled the getaway bid and the other five surrendered without much resistance,” said Salil Bhattacharya, inspector-in-charge of Thakurpukur police station, who led the 16-member police team.

The operation was hailed as a major breakthrough by the police top brass. “It is one of the major hauls in recent times. More than 130 cartridges of various bores and three improvised revolvers were seized from the criminals. Netting so many notorious criminals from the same spot proves that these people are trying to team up to commit bigger crimes,” explained Humayun Kabir, deputy superintendent of police (town).

The kingpin of the seven-member gang was identified as Ranjit Burman, alias Rano, an associate of Chaki Buro, who was arrested from SSKM Hospital on charges of extortion a couple of months ago.

Five others, all with several cases pending against them, ranging from murder, snatching and extortion, were identified as Gautam Pal, Sushil Chowdhury, alias Pet Buro, who operate both in Bhowanipore and in the district; Tarak Singh, whose turf is in Tollygunge; Manik Mondal and Rajkumar Bhattacharya.

“We hope to unearth more firearms after interrogating these seven, as the ammunition recovered hints at the existence of other weapons of different calibre. We are also trying to find out whether, in recent times, these criminals had anything to do with Sheikh Binod after he escaped from Dum Dum Central jail,” inpector-in-charge Bhattacharya said.