On Saturday, five youths — all under 18 years of age — were arrested from Madhyamgram in connection with the robberies. The police have seized four revolvers and 12 cartridges from them.

Ratan, who was arrested on Sunday, is a school dropout. The five others — Liton, Ripon Thakur, Suman Saha, Malay Debnath and Santu Mondal — have confessed to the police that they robbed people “for fun”.

Other than Suman, who was remanded in judicial custody for 14 days, the rest have been remanded in police custody for five days.

The police on Sunday visited one of the crime spots and Ratan’s house in Indraprastha Apartment in Barast with the accused to understand the modus operandi of the gang.

They were also taken to the Barasat Government Hospital for medical check-ups.

Besides firearms, around Rs 40,000 in cash, two cameras, two cellphones and some sharp-edged weapons were also recovered from the arrested.

The police said that during interrogation, the gang confessed to have conducted a number of robberies in North 24 Parganas, including one at Swapan Sarkar’s flat in Hridaypur’s Banerjee Bagan.