UMERKOTE: Four members of an extortion gang were arrested and forwarded to court on Sunday by Nabarangpur police. A pistol with live bullets, six motorcycles and three mobile phones were seized from them.
The motorcycle of one Tripathi Majhi was stolen on August 4 from his farmland in B Malliguda under Nandahandi block. Four days back, he received a call from an unknown person who asked him to come to his farm land to get the motorcycle back. When Majhi arrived at the spot, he saw three gun-toting men who fired blank at him twice and asked him to pay them Rs 3 lakh. The criminals also threatened to kill him if he informed police about the matter.
Majhi, then, paid Rs 1.9 lakh to them and assured to pay the rest amount in a couple of days. He, however, informed SP, Nitin Kusalkar who directed a team of police officials to nab the accused. Police raided various places and nabbed the four.
In another incident on Monday, Umerkote police nabbed two bike-lifters and seized four motorcycles from them. The two are Chakra Harijan and Gopabandhu Harijan.