Seven gunmen were arrested today for allegedly trying to loot a jewellery shop at Jajpur Road area in Odisha, the police said.
Two country-made postols, 13 live cartridges, a bhujali, lethal weapons, ten mobiles, a SUV vehicle, eight masks and Rs 10,540 in cash were seized from their possession.
The arrested have been identified as Saroj Nayak, Sahadev Nayak, Sadananda Nayak, Raju Nayak, Biren Dehury, Gobinda Pradhan and Tapan Kumar Pradhan.
A local court remanded them to judicial custody later in the day, the police said.
Acting on a tip-off, local police laid a trap and nabbed four of them from a roadside dhaba at Janha near the town while they were assembling and preparing to loot the jewellery shop early this morning, Superintendent of police Anup Kumar Sahu said.
The police had earlier managed to arrest two more gang members from Neulpur in Jajpur district on Wednesday. On the basis of their revelation, police nabbed another gang member from Keonjhar district on Thursday.
"It is an inter-district gang of dacoits having eight members in which Saroj was working as the kingpin. We have arrested seven members of the gang so far. Another person has been identified," Sahu said.
During interrogation, the arrested persons revealed that they had hatched a plot to commit dacoity at a jewellery shop at Jajpur Road, he said.
They have also admitted to their involvement in at least 28 dacoity cases in Angul, Dhenkanal, Keonjhar and Jajpur districts," the SP said.
