E-Paper
16 arms, over 1000 bullets seized from house of Odisha’s infamous gangster brothers
After arms peddler Prakash Behera was arrested on Thursday, the house of the gangster brothers was raided by a special team of Commissionerate Police following leads gathered from his interrogation.
Odisha police have seized over 1000 rounds of bullets and 16 automatic arms from the house of notorious gangster brothers, who are behind bars for over 4 years.
Brothers Sushant and Sushil Dhal Samant are lodged in different prisons since January 2016 when they were arrested over a litany of cases including extortion, murder, running of arms racket and tender fixing. In 2018, the two brothers were sentenced to 5 years imprisonment in two different cases for illegal possession and use of firearms.
Commissioner of Police of Bhubaneswar-Cuttack, Sudhansu Sarangi, said after arms peddler Prakash Behera was arrested on Thursday, the house of the gangster brothers was raided by a special team of Commissionerate Police.
On Thursday, police in the Choudwar area of Cuttack had nabbed Behera and seized two firearms from his possession. During interrogation, Prakash revealed to have supplied firearms to one Saroj Sethi who then confessed to having smuggled a lot of arms to the gangster duo before their arrest in 2016.
“As part of our campaign, we came to know about extortion activity following which a special team raided the residence of the two gangsters on Thursday. A thorough search of the house led to the discovery of 16 automatic arms including an assault rifle. The arms were kept in wooden frames and looked like wall paintings while bullets were hidden in cans. Searches in other parts of the house led to discovery of knives and swords that were kept in jars. There could be more arms and ammunition hidden inside the house,” said the police commissioner. Eight persons have been arrested in this connection.
Sarangi said the arms were mostly procured from Munger in Bihar and kept hidden since 2016.
He said the seizure of arms indicated that the Dhal Samanta brothers were in touch with their gang members even though they are behind bars since January 2016.
“We would take the brothers on police remand to get more details about the gun running.
Police got a clue of the extortion racket run by the two gangsters after Kuna Swain, an associate, was arrested in August, while allegedly involved in an extortion bid for Rs 5 lakh.
Also Read: Odisha job scam gets bigger, investigators suspect 100 youths were cheated
In January 2016, the gangster brothers were arrested from their house in the Bidanasi area of Cuttack following a directive from a court. The police had then seized around Rs 2.35 crore in cash, two Audi and three Mercedes cars apart from a huge cache of arms and ammunition stashed in hidden locations of the house.
In a separate search of their house in Bhubaneswar, the cops had seized Rs 11 lakh in cash, three revolvers, 100 bullets, two double-barrel guns and 27 rounds of double-barrel gun bullets.
In 2017, the Enforcement Directorate had attached immovable properties of the brothers worth Rs 16 crore.
Before their arrest, the Dhal Samant brothers were on the run after being accused in several murder cases and used several pseudonyms.