Six petty thieves engaged in extortion, under the garb of notorious criminals, were arrested on Friday.
Report said a businessman, Pradeep Agarwal (39), of the posh Civil Township area had lodged a complaint with the police on Wednesday. He had received threat calls for a ransom of ` 50,000 and on Wednesday two miscreants landed at his place to collect the money.
SP Himanshu Lal said the duo, Pramod Pradhan (44) and Sangram Keshari Patnaik (40), posed themselves as notorious criminal Deepu Sharma and his aide Raja to strike terror. In due course of investigation, they were arrested along with four others identified as Brajendra Rout (55), Samit Das (42), Bhanja Patnaik (48) and Ranjan Sabat (45). Police said they confessed to have collected ransom from several businessmen.