Six criminals arrested in Kendrapada

BHUBANESWAR/KENDRAPADA: In a bid to neutralize the crime syndicate of D S brothers-Sushil and Sushant Dhal Samant-the police in Kendrapada district on Thursday arrested six notorious criminals, who are suspected to be the associates of the gangster brothers.
The accused were identified as Sanjeev Mohanty, Rashmi Ranjan Swain, Bijoy Behera, Ramakant Khatua, Gagan Behari Jena and Rajesh Sahoo, all residents of Marshaghai area of Kendrapada.
"They are henchmen of Litu alias Debiprasad Das and Dipu alias Biplab Behera. Litu and Dipu are rivals of gangster Tito and were aligned with D S brothers. Litu and Biplab were arrested recently," said Kendrapada SP Nitinjeet Singh.
A group of 12 persons, including the six arrested persons assembled near a bridge under Kendrapada Sadar police limits and were planning to execute a robbery when police swooped down on them on Wednesday night. "Their other six associates escaped with firearms. They have been identified and will be arrested soon. The accused were involved in a series of robbery, tender fixing and extortion cases. We strongly suspect they were carrying out tender fixing in Kendrapada at the behest of Dhal Samant brothers," Singh said.
Two weeks back, police arrested notorious criminal Syed Imran Ali, 40 alias Saffo, the brother of Usmal Ali alias Tito on charges of fixing tenders in collusion with some contractors and government officials. In the past three weeks, police already arrested 39 persons including six contractors for their alleged involvements in tender fixing rackets in the district.