Jajpur : 5 Held for stealing SUV, vehicle recovered

Jajpur : The Panikoili police on Friday arrested five persons on charges of stealing an SUV from Naudapur village in Jajpur district. Police have also recovered the stolen SUV from their possession. The accused have been identified as Arabinda Ojha of Hatadihi village, Somnaath Puhan of Orali village, belonging to neighbouring Keonjhar district, Daud Khan of Manitri village in Bhadrak, Nirmal Pradhan of Rasulpal village in Dhenkanal and Gangadhar Sahu of Badagobindapur village in Angul district, police said.

According to police, one Rajendra Sahoo of Naudapur village filed a complaint with local police that his SUV which was parked near a temple in his village was stolen by the unidentified miscreants on June 16 night. Based on the complaint, police registered a case on June 17 and started an investigation.

Acting on a tip-off that an SUV was parked in a secluded area of Kupari in Bhadrak, a police team went to the spot and found the vehicle there on Wednesday. They found the registration number of the SUV had been tampered with. But the owner of the SUV identified it as his vehicle as to the sticker of his presiding village deity which he had pasted on the front of the vehicle. Police seized the stolen vehicle and picked up a youth who was roaming suspiciously near the stolen vehicle.

Police brought the SUV and the man to the Panikoili police station and interrogated the man thoroughly at the police station. During interrogation, the detained youth revealed many things. Based on his revelation, police managed to arrest four other accused after raiding several places in different areas.

Police said, as the SUV had enough fuel left in the vehicle, the miscreants stole it and drove it nearly 100 km adding the accused were trying to sell the SUV after preparing forged documents. The accused were forwarded to the court on Saturday and later remanded to judicial custody after their bail pleas were rejected, police said.