Dhanbad: Two armed miscreants accused in the Jan 19 bank robbery in Odisha’s Keonjhar district have been arrested from Nirsa and Sindri blocks in Jharkhand’s Dhanbad district in a joint operation by police of both states. A part of the looted gold and vehicles used in the crime were recovered, police said on Saturday.Armed criminals had barged into the public sector bank’s Barbil branch in Keonjhar on Jan 19 and decamped with around 5-6 kg of gold, estimated to be worth over Rs 5 crore and Rs 8 lakh in cash. A case was registered at Barbil police station in this connection.A special team led by the Keonjhar ASP Pratyush Mohapatra traced the robbers’ link to Dhanbad. The Odisha police team reached Dhanbad and, with the assistance of local police, conducted coordinated raids at multiple locations in Nirsa and Sindri blocks.SP (city) Rithvik Srivastava said, “Two accused — Raja Kumar Singh, a native of Jamui district in Bihar residing at Chasnala in Sindri of Dhanbad, and Kunal Raj Verma, a resident of Nirsa, Dhanbad — were arrested during the raids. A total of 288g of looted gold, two SUVs and four mobile phones used in the execution of the crime were recovered. Raids are under way to arrest the remaining accused and recover the rest of the looted gold.“Mohapatra said, “The crime, executed at gunpoint, was one of the biggest bank robbery incidents in the region.”
