Sambalpur: Four more persons have been arrested from Delhi in the Sambalpur Mannapuram Gold Finance heist case. They have been identified as Vikash Kumar and Sanjeev Kumar Paswan from Vaishali in Bihar, and Yash Anand and Piyush Raj from Patna.
The police claimed that the four are close to mastermind Subodh Singh, a notorious gangster who is now lodged in the Alipore Central Jail in Kolkata. With these arrests, the case is now well on its way to being solved, the police said.
On January 3 this year, armed robbers had stormed the Mannapuram Gold Finance branch in Budharaja, Sambalpur. They had left with gold valued at nearly Rs 20 crore.
The Sambalpur Police have so far arrested eight persons in this case. Senior officials have claimed that all of those involved in the robbery are now in custody and the next part involves tracing the loot.
The New Indian Express has quoted Sambalpur SP Mukesh Bhamoo as saying that Subodh Singh had entrusted Vikash to execute the loot in Sambalpur. Vikash and Piyush had earlier robbed 25 kg gold in Rajasthan and 17 kg in Madhya Pradesh. The planning, execution, logistics and disposal were all handled by different teams to mislead the police.
“We have cracked all parts of the operation except the disposal, but we’ve ascertained that the looted gold fetched a huge sum which was used to procure sophisticated firearms. We have recovered around 14 pistols from the possession of the accused. All four will be forwarded to court on Saturday as investigations continue,” Bhamoo is quoted as saying.
Last month, Subodh was brought on a seven-day remand from Kolkata. Despite being behind bars, he was allegedly orchestrating crimes across states through his active criminal network. His record includes at least 28 major crimes across Odisha, Rajasthan, Bihar, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, including gold heists, contract killings, and cases of extortion.
Other accused arrested in connection with the case include Uttam Paswan, believed to have coordinated the heist from Guwahati, and Pankaj Paswan and Ajaya Paswan from Hajipur. A country-made pistol and live ammunition were recovered from Pankaj’s rented house in Sambalpur during his remand.
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