Burla police foil dacoity bid, five arrested

SAMBALPUR: Burla police arrested a group of five dacoits including a notorious criminal while they were preparing to loot at an underpass near NH-53 within Burla police limits on Friday night. The arrests were made based on investigation following an Instagram video that went viral, where one of the accused was threatening to kill someone.

The accused have been identified as Sujal alias Sibanand Swain (22), Md Suleman (26), Sudhanshu Chhatria (22), Samiraj Lugun (23) and Uttam Bagarti (25) all from different police limits in the district.

According to reports, earlier this week, in the Instagram video, the prime accused identified as Sibanand Swain had threatened to kill another person over past enmity. Subsequently, an investigation was launched and the identity of the accused was ascertained. During the course of investigation, police also found that while Sibanand was jailed in connection with an NDPS case few years ago, he was left on parole and is ever since on the run. Eventually, acting on reliable input, a team of Burla police conducted raid at an underpass in Golgunda area near the NH-53 in Burla, where Sibanand along with his associates was preparing to loot the commuters passing through the route in the night and nabbed them.