Five journalists among 6 held for extortion
BHUBANESWAR: Commissionerate Police on Monday arrested six persons including five journalists on the charges of extortion and forwarded them to court. The accused are Arun Naik (28) and Nursingha Behera (30) of Times Odisha, Binayak Behera (30) of IYA News, Biswa Ranjan Mohanty (32) of Vision TV, Laxmikanta Sahoo of Ananya News and their driver Balaram Behera (36).
The journalists of the web channels had allegedly demanded an extortion amount of more than `1.6 lakh from a non-edible oil manufacturing firm Jyoti Traders at Bhagabanpur under Tomando police limits. Cash of `24,450, two cars, four motorcycles and 11 mobile phones were seized from their possession. After receiving a complaint from Alok Padhi and Tofan Barik, owners of Jyoti Traders, police arrested the six.
During investigation it was found that the accused broke open the door of the firm, assaulted the complainants, demanded money and took away `34,000 from their cash box on October 24. They also allegedly forced Alok and Tofan to transact `99,000 and `31,000 through Phonepe wallet. Before fleeing the spot, they ransacked the company office. Further investigation is on.