Ex-armyman held for robbery links

17092011

District police in Kolkata have picked up former armyman Uttam Mahato and taken him on seven-day remand to get a breakthrough in recent crimes like bank robberies in the town. Mahato, who hails from Baliapur in Jharkhand, lost his job in Bihar Regiment after he was found guilty in several criminal cases, including murder of an MLA.

Asansol-Durgapur police commissioner Ajay Kumar Nand said Mahato’s name has surfaced in bank dacoity cases. “We have picked up him for further interrogation that could give us some vital clues about the recent crimes in Asansol,” Nand said.

A brilliant student, Uttam studied at Sindhri College in Jharkhand and joined army in 1996. His mother-in-law is posted in the excise department. Uttam was posted at Bikaner in Rajasthan where he started to commit petty crimes. He and his colleague Jaswant Singh was found guilty in murder of local MLA Subodh Singh and was court-martialled in 1999. While in jail, he got associated with various criminals in the next five years and formed a gang thereafter. Few days back, Rs 15 lakh had been looted from an SBI ATM counter and Rs 14.70 lakh from United Bank of India’s Apcargarden branch in Asansol.

State CID is investigating both these cases and they suspect Mahato has link with both the crimes.