Police arrest 13 while planning to commit a burglary in Bhubaneswar

The Bhubaneswar police were able to prevent a burglary and insurance fraud due to an alert citizen and arrested 13 people when they were preparing to commit the crime, an officer said on Thursday.

According to police, one Santosh Kumar Moharana has been running a plywood business at Tamando Bazar since 2016. However, he has been facing financial distress due to losses.

Moharana failed to pay the house rent for the last one and a half years and also had a loan of Rs 3 lakh, the police said. In order to recover money fraudulently, Moharana, along with his ex-employee Manoj Sejpada, hatched a conspiracy to claim insurance money by committing a burglary at his own shop on the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday, informed Bhubaneswar DCP Jagmohan Meena.

Acting on information from a citizen, the personnel of Tamando police station conducted a raid and apprehended Moharana, Sejpada, and their associates while they were attempting to commit burglary at about 2.30 am on Thursday, he said.

Five vehicles, two mobile phones along with cutting machines, face masks, flashlights, iron rods, gloves, knives, and several other instruments were seized from their possession, the DCP said.

Meena said that the accused persons had planned to create the appearance of an actual burglary by unknown miscreants.

Later, it was found that the Moharana had promised his associates that he would initially pay Rs 1,000 to each of them, and after receiving the insurance claim amount, he would further pay Rs 5,000 to each as remuneration for their participation in the act, he said.

The remaining amount was to be shared equally between the two prime accused, Moharana and Sejpada.

During interrogation, prime accused Moharana confessed that he had learned the modus operandi of committing the offence by watching videos on YouTube, the police said.