Bhubaneswar: In a crackdown, the Commissionerate Police busted a criminal gang looting passengers in buses and trains in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack. Saturday, at least six members of the notorious gang were arrested in this connection, including a medicine store owner.
Briefing media persons on the modus of operandi of the lootera gang, police said that the members were on first outset making friendship with unknown passengers and then conducting the crime by offering sedative-laced drinks to them in buses and trains.
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Three gold chains weighing around 40gm, 18 strips of sedative drugs, one motorcycle and six mobile phones were recovered from the possession of gang members, a senior police official stated.
According to a source, the arrested medicine store owner had been supplying sedative drugs to the gang without verifying any prescription given by a medical practitioner.
“The gang mostly targeted passengers travelling from far off places to the State capital for the first time. After striking a rapport with the unsuspecting travellers, the hoodlums would loot them by offering spiked drinks and food,” the Twin City Police Commissioner Saumendra Priyadarshi said.
“Two receivers of the stolen properties are also among the arrested. A special squad was on the lookout for the gang after three cases of drugging and loot were reported in Bhubaneswar this year,” Priyadarshi added.
Priyadarshi appealed passengers to stay away from strangers and not to accept any food or drink from them. The senior official also warned medicine stores not to provide sedatives without a prescription.
PNN