Baripada: The Baripada Town police station busted an interstate thief gang and arrested three accused from the Taktpur area on Wednesday.
According to the police, acting on a tip-off, a team from the Baripada Town police station raided the Taktpur area on Wednesday morning and arrested two persons. The two were brought to the Town Police station for interrogation. After obtaining more information from the two, police raided a rented house in the Bhugudakta area of the town where they lived. Another person was arrested from there and seven laptops, one iPad, 19 mobiles, two smartwatches, three ATMs, Aadhaar cards, and Rs 2000 were seized.
The three accused have been identified as Prakash Murthy (23) of the Vellore area in Tamil Nadu, P Balaji (22), and Kumar Apparao alias Muniyappan (26). The three arrested accused are educated youths who were involved in the theft of smartphones and other electronic gadgets in the area.
According to Baripada Sadar SDPO Prakash James Topp and Town Police Officer Ajay Sudarshan Bage, there were frequent complaints of thefts of laptops and mobile phones in the Town Police station area. Acting on the complaints, the police launched an investigation and zeroed in on the three culprits.
Toppo said, “The modus operandi of the accused was quite interesting. They would take the guise of beggars and move around the area. When they found any house unlocked, they would enter the house and lay hands on whatever they could and flee the place.”
The three have been arrested after an investigation and further investigation is underway. The police are now on the hunt for the other members of the gang.
