Bihar: Interstate gang of gold robbers busted, four held

PATNA: The Vaishali police arrested four members of an interstate gang of gold robbers, including its kingpin Dharmendra Rai alias Dharmendra Gope, on Saturday. The gang members were involved in looting gold from the offices of private finance companies in and outside the state.
Vaishali SP Gaurav Mangla on Sunday said the gang had earlier done recce of at least two private finance companies in Siliguri and Kolkata in West Bengal; Dhanbad in Jharkhand and Darbhanga in Bihar for committing crime.
The startling revelation was made Dharmendra, a native of Khapura village under the Bidupur police station area in Vaishali district, during interrogation.
Over 8kg of gold, two country-made pistols, a double barrel gun, 16 live cartridges, charas weighing 4,875kg and Rs.1.5 lakh in cash were seized during raids at different hideouts of the gang in Vaishali district. The raid was carried out by a joint team of the STF and the district armed police, the SP said, adding two women – Ampi Devi and Shanti Devi – were among those arrested.
The gold jewellery looted from the office of a private finance company at Hajipur on November 23 last year was stocked inside a defunct hand pump at Khapura. Dharmendra was involved in at least 30 cases in Vaishali, Muzaffarpur, Samastipur, Saran and Sitamarhi districts.
The SP said the antecedents of the two arrested women were being verified.