Malkangiri: Police have arrested five persons on charges of looting over Rs 8 lakh from the Soil Conservation office in the Mathili block of Malkangiri district last night.
The mastermind behind the loot, Ram Chandra Nag, who was working as a collection agent, and his four associates identified as Prashant Kumar Sagaria (31) of Patraput village, Ratan Majhi (31) & Anand Kashyap (31) of Mendhakuli village and Krushna Katia (38) of Madkamigudar village, have been arrested and forwarded to the court today, the police said and added that Rs 8.71 lakh has been recovered from them.
SDPO Abhilas Kumar, in a press meet, informed that Pramod Kumar Behera, assistant director at Mathili Soil Conservation Office, had lodged a complaint with the Mathili police station alleging that some miscreants last night looted the money collected from the farmers.
On the basis of the complaint, a team led by Mathili IIC Raghunath Majhi started an investigation and rounded up the collection agent, Ram Chandra Nag, who was present at the scene for interrogation.
Following this, police came to know that the collection agent was the mastermind behind the robbery, and had involved four of his friend to execute his plan.
When Nag was depositing the money collected from farmers at around 8 pm yesterday, in presence of assistant director Pramod Behera, four men barged into the Soil Conservation Office and threatened all with sharps weapons to hand over the money. Following a brief brawl with the staff, the miscreants snatched the cash and sped away on their motorcycles, the police added.
