BJD youth leader among nine held for stealing trucks in Odisha

JAJPUR: Police on Tuesday claimed to have busted an inter-State gang of truck lifters with the arrest of nine persons including a youth leader of the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD). The accused were identified as Aswajit Rout, Bikram Nayak, Mahammad Abu Nasar, Ramesh Parida, Biswajit Samal, Soumyashree Jena (all from Jajpur district), Gudu Thakur (Bihar), Ajaya Kumar Shaw and Abinit Shaw (West Bengal). Notably, Aswajit Rout alias Mantu is the Jajpur district vice president of Biju Yuva Janata Dal, the youth wing of BJD.

Police said the accused were part of a gang that was involved in stealing trucks parked at isolated places. A stolen truck, an MUV, several registration plates of heavy vehicles, nine mobile phones and `2.45 lakh cash were seized from them.

Sub-divisional police officer of Jajpur Road Pramod Kumar Mallick said last week, one Sumit Nayak had lodged a complaint with Dharmasala police alleging that his truck was stolen from near a stone crusher unit at Bhadanga.

Basing on the complaint, police started investigation and picked up the watchman at the crusher unit for questioning. During interrogation, the watchman revealed that some local youths including Ramesh had come to the unit at night and warned him not to come outside.

“Police got to know about the local link of the truck lifting gang from the watchman of the stone crusher unit. Ramesh was nabbed and police found that he had connections in Kolkata. The gang members from Kolkata used to come to Jajpur and with the help of Ramesh, took the stolen trucks,” said the SDPO.
During questioning, Ramesh revealed that they lifted eight trucks from various locations of the district.
They then handed over the trucks to scrap dealers of Kolkata and Bihar who dismantled the stolen vehicles before disposing of the parts. The accused were produced in court and remanded in judicial custody after their bail pleas were rejected.