Police in Malda managed to crack a robbery within six hours of the crime on Sunday, made some arrests and recovered some of the cash and jewellery looted by the criminals.

Around 4.30am on Sunday, a gang of robbers barged into the house of Prakash Kumar Singha, a retired policeman, at Malda town’s Madhabnagar.

Singha was alone at his house then. He was soon overpowered by the attackers, tied to a pillar of the house and beaten up. Then, for two hours, the robbers looted cash and gold from the house. When they were about to leave, Singha managed to finally yell for help and alert the neighbours.

In a hurry, the robbers left a two-wheeler they had brought and instead took away Singha’s two-wheeler.

The police started a probe. Swati, a relative of Singha, claimed that the robbers had taken away ₹1 crore in cash and 250 grams of gold.

“We are checking out the details of the items and cash even though such a claim has been made by the family,” said a police officer.

Police then started gathering information about the owner of the two-wheeler that was left by the robbers on the spot.

In due course, they nabbed two gang members from Englishbazar and Old Malda.

“We have also recovered two bags, one of gold ornaments and the other with ₹36 lakh in cash,” said a senior police officer.

The police have not divulged the identities of the arrested duo in the interest of the investigation. They are in search of other members of the gang.

Narcotics seized

A team of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) seized 2kg of brown sugar worth ₹2 crore on Sunday, arresting two youths from Rathbari of Malda town in this connection. Arrested Yakub Sheikh is of Malda's Kaliachak-I block while Vishal Haldar is from neighbouring North Dinajpur.