In a breakthrough, the police arrested 10 professional criminals from different parts of Seraikela-Kharsawan district on Monday.
Manoj Sarkar, wanted in connection with the murder of builder-cum-land dealer Ranjit Baij in February, was also arrested during this raid.
During the arresting spree, the police confiscated seven pistols (including two 7.65 MM) and a large quantity of ammunition along with two cars and 10 mobile phones from those arrested.
Talking about the breakthrough, Seraikela-Kharsawan superintendent of police, Mohammed Arshi, hinted at a timely tip-off playing a crucial role in having the criminals arrested. He also revealed that the gangsters were conspiring to commit some grievous crime in the Adityapur area sometime in the next two-three days.
“Acting on the tip-off, we formed separate teams of police officers and had them carry out random search operations, especially at the police checking points across the district on Sunday evening. During one such check, one of the police teams intercepted a car at Chowka and nabbed three suspected criminals, namely Domnik Samsung, Adhir Pradhan, and Dipu Ojha. The team recovered two pistols from them. During interrogation, the trio confessed that they had committed crimes in and around the district,” said Arshi while talking to the newsmen at Ranjit Baij on Monday.
The superintendent of police further revealed that based on information they got from the arrested individuals many more arrests were made from Kharsawan. The vital leads also helped the police officers recover fire-arms from them. On further interrogation, they admitted to having committed the crimes in an organised manner and that they were supposed to attend a meeting of the gang members in Adityapur where their leader Manoj Sarkar was also supposed to address them.
Based on these leads, the police formed a network of cops to spread across, Nimdih block of the district, where Sarkar was staying at an undisclosed location. Early on Monday morning, they succeeded in nabbing the gangster.