BARGARH: Bargarh police on Sunday arrested three persons, including a Deputy Forest Ranger, for extorting money from people in the name of Maoists.
Cash worth Rs 1.65 lakh, three mobile phones and two motorcycles were seized from them. The accused are deputy forest ranger of Sambalpur forest range Batakrushna Sethy, Dolagobinda Sahu and his younger brother Balaram Sahu.
Bargarh SP Mukesh Kumar Bhamoo said the three used to extort money ranging from Rs 30,000 to Rs 3,00,000 from contractors and government officials by posing as left-wing extremists (LWEs). They had been running the racket since 2014.
He said that though the trio had been extorting money from contractors and government officials for the last five years, the victims did not inform the police out of fear.
The accused used to make phone calls to contractors and officials identifying themselves as Maoists and demanded money from them whenever news about movement of LWEs in Gandhamardan Hill Range and Debrigarh Wildlife Sanctuary area was reported by the media.
They used to ask the contractors and the officials to come to the forest as specified by them and hand over the money.
On Saturday, a contractor, Ashok Das, lodged a complaint with Bhatli police station after the three demanded money from him for the second time. Subsequently, police formed a special team and arrested the trio.
The three had extorted Rs 50,000 from a Divisional Forest Officer, Rs 90,000 from a Forest Ranger and Rs 10,000 from a Forester in the last one year.
The accused also extorted Rs 2 lakh from a contractor Munna Mohapatra, Rs 1.50 lakh from another contractor Pradip Biswal and others.
Police, however, did not disclose the names of three Government officials who were the victims of the racket.
The SP said a case has been registered under Section 386 of IPC and further investigation into the matter is on.