The five accused were escorted back to the city on Monday morning; they will be soon produced before a magistrate, ACP M B Pethani (special branch) said on Tuesday evening.

The special branch said that all the five -- wanted in cases for rioting, assaulting and injuring people -- were from villages of Ganjam district of Orissa and had come to the city as migrant labourers. Cases had been registered against them in the Pandesara, Mahidharpura, Umra and Varachha police station areas of the city.

According to information, Deputy Commissioner of Police K K Oza, Assistant Commissioner of Police M L Jani, Kapodara Police Inspector C M Mudaliar and 60 other policemen are in Orissa since June 6 and are trying to apprehend the criminals who had fled back to their native villages after committing the crime.

The accused have been identified as Ranjit Vanmali Behra and Kalupradhan Bawlipradhan Kachura of Chhatrapur taluka; Santosh Pradhan Rang Pradhan and Pravin Daya Pradhan of Balghat taluka and Vijay Narayan Pradhan of Kenu Baghat taluka.

The special branch said that Ranjit was involved in a rioting case registered in the Pandesara police station in 1997 and Kalu in a Mahidharpura rioting case of 1998. Santosh and Pravin were involved in a culpable homicide case registered in the Umra police station in 1998. Vijay Pradhan was involved in a rioting case way back in 1991.

Though the police have not divulged information about the exact number of criminals they are looking for in Orissa, there are sure of more arrests in the next few days. This is the first time that the city police have sent such a large force to apprehend culprits in another state.