Cuttack: Jagatpur Poice nipped a plan to rob a fuel station here in the bud when they arrested two members of a six-member gang Sunday night.
Police said they arrested Debendra Nath Mohanty alias Deba (31), a resident of Nuahata village in Gop police limits of Puri, and Santosh Kumar Moharana alias Babula (38), a resident of Sujapur village.
“A case (228/18) has been registered under Sections 399 (preparation to commit dacoity), 402 (assembling for purpose of committing dacoity) of the IPC and 25(I-B) of the Arms Act,” Jagatpur police station inspector in-charge (IIC) Biranchi Pati said, adding that a 7.65mm pistol, three live bullets, and two motorcycles have been seized from their possession.
Sources said the police werere at their wits’ end to track down four other members of the gang.
According to sources, Jagatpur police officials were tipped of about the gang’s assembly near Nuasahi overbridge Sunday night.
“It was around 10pm when we received information about the six- member gang hatching a conspiracy to rob cash from a fuel station along the national highway 16 near Jagatpur police station here. Then we raided the spot and managed to arrest two of them,” sub-inspector (SI) Pramod Kumar Lenka said. Four of them, however, managed to flee taking advantage of the darkness, he added.
Upon interrogation they confessed to have been conspiring for the armed robbery. “They said that they would have attacked the fuel station’s employee in charge of the cash,” Lenka said, adding that the gang was aware about the fuel station’s money transfer at night.
Notably, the case was registered on the basis of a complaint lodged by SI Lenka.