Two armed miscreants accused in Bank of Maharashtra robbery in Odisha’s Keonjhar district have been arrested from Nirsa and Sindri blocks in Jharkhand’s Dhanbad district in a joint operation by the police of both states. A part of the looted gold and vehicles used in the crime have been recovered, police said on Saturday.
A special team led by Keonjhar ASP Pratyush Mohapatra traced the robbers’ link to Dhanbad. The Odisha police team reached Dhanbad and, with the assistance of local police, conducted coordinated raids at multiple locations in Nirsa and Sindri blocks.
SP (City) Rithvik Srivastava said: “Two accused — Raja Kumar Singh, a native of Jamui district in Bihar residing at Chasnala in Sindri of Dhanbad, and Kunal Raj Verma, a resident of Nirsa, Dhanbad — were arrested during the raids. A total of 288 grams of looted gold, two SUVs, and four mobile phones used in the execution of the crime were recovered. Raids are under way to arrest the remaining accused and recover the rest of the looted gold.”
The daylight robbery had taken place on January 19. Armed robbers had decamped with 3.7 kg gold jewellery worth over Rs 5 crore along with Rs 4.35 lakh cash by holding staff and customers at gunpoint in the Bank of Maharashtra branch in Barbil.
The robbers had also taken the CCTV DVR with them while leaving. After the loot, they had allegedly escaped to Jharkhand via Noamundi road. Following the incident, Keonjhar police formed six teams and launched investigation in different places of Odisha, Jharkhand and West Bengal.
