Odisha Police recovers Rs 32 lakh stolen cash buried underground

Bhubaneswar, April 20 (IANS) A total of Rs 32 lakh out of Rs 39 lakh cash stolen from a hotelier in Odisha's Sambalpur district has been recovered and four persons arrested, police said on Wednesday.

Briefing media persons about the case, Sambalpur's Superintendent of Police Battula Gangadhar said: "After detaining one of the accused, we got the lead that the stolen cash has been buried underground in the native place of another accused in Deogarh district."

The police immediately rushed to the spot and recovered Rs 32 lakh stashed in a sack and buried under the ground, he said.

Out of the four arrested persons, three are present staff of the hotel while another is a former employee, the SP said.

The accused have been identified as Dileswar Behera alias Rakesh (ex-employee), Manas Pradhan, Jogeswar Behera, and Gobinda Mallick. All these accused have made a plan to loot the cash in the absence of the hotel owner and they committed the crime on April 15, said Gangadhar.

Examination of CCTV footage and the mobile communication among them helped the police to crack the case, he said.

"As the complaint has claimed that Rs 39 lakh has been stolen, we will conduct further investigation to find out where they spent/stored the rest of stolen money," the SP added.