With the arrest, the Police have prevented the culprit from committing any heinous crimes in the area.
In a presser here, Sambalpur SP, Battula Gangadhar said, “The desperate criminal was nabbed by Sambalpur Police and the special squad. For the past few months, a dedicated team was specifically tasked to track down and nab the culprit. Information was continuously being received through reliable sources regarding his movements.”
To further develop such raw information, sources were carefully selected and deployed and intensive surveillance was mounted.
“Basing on specific information, the team swung into action, sensing the presence of the police team, the criminal started running from the place, but the team did not let him escape and overpowered him after a brief chase. The team conducted a raid and with painstaking relentless efforts finally yielded positive results,” he said.
Tima’s criminal activities started in the year 2013 in the form of committing theft of 33 KV aluminum wire with most wanted criminal Sarfarj Khan alias Babu Kong of Sunapali under Dhanupali Police Station area. Besides aluminum theft, he was also involved in the theft of four-wheeler vehicles and other heavy vehicles like trucks, Hywa, Bolero vehicles etc.
“He is also involved in motorcycle theft cases in the districts of Sambalpur, Jharsuguda, Sundargarh etc. At the beginning of his criminal activities, he used to operate under the leadership of Babu Kong. Though Babu Kong has been arrested by police several times Tima remained out of reach of police arrest. Later on, he formed his own gang and started committing Robbery, Dacoity etc,” the SP said.
Tima was last arrested accidentally on 10.08.2018 by Kuchinda Police. He, however, escaped while being taken on remand by Keonjhar Police in 2019 and was absconding since then. Nowadays he was targeting the agents of finance companies who are collecting money from the different groups and forcibly snatching the cash from them with his own gang.
In order to apprehend Tima, information regarding him was collected from technical surveillance and a special operation was launched along with a special squad as per the direction of SP Sambalpur and the said team was following him for the last two months for his arrest.
Despite all efforts, Tima managed to escape from the police team three times within the operational period. He never stayed in his own house and frequently changed his hideouts to elude police arrest.
Ultimately police team formed a three-layer cordon by the side of his hideout to apprehend him with help of the special squad and DVF team and apprehend him with much difficulty.
During the operational period of two months, a police team camped at Jamankira area and the accused was found using 10 Sim cards with 10 mobile phones to divert police from technical surveillance and tracking of mobile phones.
After his arrest, four motorcycles, 10 mobile phones, three looted tablets, one sharp cutting knife, Rs 4000 cash, and two looted ATMs were seized from him and his associates. Police have also arrested his associates Pramod Kumar Behera and Rabindra Dharua, both of Badmal village under Jujumura police limits.
