Cuttack robbery case: more arrests, gold recoveries made

Two more persons were arrested on Saturday in connection with the November 18 robbery incident in a finance company in Odisha's Cuttack city, taking the number of accused apprehended in the case so far to 10, a senior police official said.

The police also recovered around 6.7 kg of gold ornaments initially mortgaged with the India Infoline Finance Limited (IIFL) which were re-mortgaged by an employee of the company, who was arrested, in two city branch offices of another gold loan firm, Cuttack city DCP Prateek Singh.

A branch of the IIFL was robbed on November 18 and several of its employees including the mastermind behind the incident were arrested in this connection. Gold ornaments and cash worth over Rs 10 crore had been looted on that day.

The two persons arrested during the day were goldsmiths who were associates of the persons accused in the robbery case.

Police Commissioner, Bhubaneswar-Cuttack, Sudhansu Sarangi said that the main accused, Lala Amrit Ray, and some other employees of IIFL were engaged in manipulating mortgaged gold ornaments since 2016.

The City police will now keep the seized gold ornaments with the district armoury and the IIFL will get them back on the basis of the court's direction, he said.

The IIFL assured those who had mortgaged the gold ornaments will get it back as they have been insured.