JAGATSINGHPUR: Two youths were arrested from Jagatsinghpur town on Monday for allegedly collecting extortion money from a contractor on behalf of an undertrial prisoner lodged in Choudwar jail.
The arrested Subhash Swain and Sumant Singh were also contractors and were working as agents of the UTP whose identity has not been disclosed by police for investigation purpose.
Last week, contractor Tusarkanta Mohanty of Naugaon in the district received an extortion call. The caller asked Tusarkanta, who was recently awarded the contract for a road construction work of the Rural Development Department in Naugaon, to pay Rs 20,000 to Swain and Singh at Gandhi Chhack. On a complaint, police tracked the mobile numbers of the two, which led to their arrest. They were produced in court that remanded them in judicial custody.
A similar incident had occurred last week when a UTP of Alipingal jail made extortion demand from another contractor through his aides Sanjay Rout and Susanta Nayak. Both Rout and Nayak have been arrested.
Last year, narcotics and cell phones were seized from Alipingal sub-jail. Even as the jail is overcrowded with dreaded criminals from Paradip and Kujang areas, its renovation and expansion pleas have fallen on deaf ears till now.