7 criminals nabbed for planning dacoity

Patna: Seven armed criminals were arrested on Monday near Kamaldah Jain temple when they were planning to commit dacoity.

Patna SSP Manu Maharaaj received information about a gang planning a dacoity near Kamaldah Jain temple. He constituted a team led by SP (city) Jayant Kant which caught seven criminals with five country-made pistols, 19 live cartridges, six cellphones, gold and silver bars, jewellery and Rs 3,900 cash. The arrested criminals are Banti Sahni of Muzaffarpur, Birju Paswan of Samastipur and Pawan Sahni, Arvind Sahni, Pintu Sahni, Rajiv Kumar, Gobardhan Manjhi and Pawan Soni of Patna.

“This gang was also involved in the dacoity at one Navin Prasad’s residence in Maharani Colony on December 31, 2013. They admitted their involvement in the dacoity and also revealed that they sold the gold and silver items looted from the house to one Pawan Soni, who works near Khajekalan pani ki tanki,” the SSP said. Pawan was also arrested and the gold and silver items were recovered, he added.

The accused used to work as labourers during daytime to confuse the police. “All the accused have criminal background and are involved in dacoity cases at different places, including Deedarganj, Malsalami, Bypass, Bakhtiyarpur, Chowk, Khajekalan and Mehndiganj in Patna and also in Samastipur and Muzaffarpur,” he said.

Three held: Patna police on Sunday night arrested three criminals for trying to loot the batteries of a mobile phone tower at Bhagwanpur under Masaurhi police station (PS) area.

The SSP received information about the gang instructed Masaurhi SHO who reached there. “The criminals tried to escape when they saw cops approaching them. However, police arrested three of them while others managed to escape,” he said. Those arrested were Mahesh Yadav (40) of Ramkrishna Nagar under R K Nagar PS area, Mahesh Kumar (20) of Pashchim Darwaja under Khajekalan PS, and Himanshu Rai of Danara under Bikram PS area.

Explaining the gang’s modus operandi, the SSP said, “The gang members used to assemble at a secluded place to plan their loot. They tied the security guard of the tower with rope before looting it. The accused also revealed names and location of some of the buyers of the looted items. We are still investigating the case to nab the buyers of looted items and other members of the gang.” The police also recovered a pistol, a live cartridge, cutter machine, gas cylinder, pickup van, an iron rod and 24 big batteries.

Courtesy: TNN