One of the two youths who pulled off armed heists at three fuel bunks in and around the state capital on October 24 was arrested from Birsa Chowk in the city on Friday.

Imtiyaz Ansari, 25, a native of Lohardaga district, had rented a house in Manitola under Doranda thana. Police are looking for his partner in crime, Md Irfan, 25, a resident of the same locality.

Addressing reporters at the collectorate, city SP Aman Kumar said both Imtiyaz and Irfan had criminal antecedents, and had also been arrested in Ranchi for snatching.

“They are accused in as many as six cases lodged at Pundag, Nagri, Tamar and Dhurwa police stations, besides Sisai thana in Gumla district,” Kumar said.

Police have recovered a part of the cash booty, the sports bike used in the serial loots last month and mobile phones robbed from refill station employees from Imtiyaz. During interrogation, he is learnt to have said that they planned the serial strikes 15 days in advance. They identified fuel bunks that were near highways and would facilitate escape.

The two youths had targeted Hindustan Petroleum’s Jagrani pump in Sithio along Ring Road under Dhurwa thana and looted Rs 17,000.

They cleaned out Rs 46,000, besides mobile phones, from HP’s Jhari Sakaldeep Petrol Pump at Pugru under Tupudana thana. Madhav Fuel, situated barely 200 metres from Jhari Sakaldeep, was their third target. The robbed cash was Rs 70,000.

“A sling bag snatched from an employee and five fuel receipts of Jagrani will be among incriminating evidence against them,” the SP said.

Ranchi police mobilised human and technical intelligence to zero in on the accused. “Though they had covered their faces during the crimes to cheat CCTV cameras, we were able to identify them using our intelligence network,” Kumar said, adding that mobile phones robbed from employees of Jhari Sakaldeep pump played a crucial role.

PCR van vigil

Amid claims that cops in PCR vans don’t take their patrolling duty seriously, Ranchi SSP Anish Gupta on Friday divided the capital into five zones and said thana officers-in-charge as well as DSP-rank officers would carry out surprise checks between 1am and 4am.