Five persons arrested for demanding extortion

The five, identified as Chande Nayak, Kanika Soye, Sonika Bodhra, April Devgan and Budhwa Purti, had formed a group and planned to extort money from local businessmen.

In their first attempt, the youths rang up Gopal Singh, Manager of a private company and demanded Rs 5 crore as levy, they said.

Subsequently they made three four calls to Singh and all the time they threatened him with dire consequences. This was brought to the notice of Bonai police.

Since the calls were coming from one particular number, we kept a tab and tracked the accused persons", Amarish Panda, sub-divisional police officer of Bonai, said.

Two days ago the police were informed that, five youths were moving in suspicious condition in the Narayanposi jungle near Bonai.

We surrounded this small but dense forest cover and apprehended the five, said Panda.

The police booked the five for extortion, planning to commit dacoity and section 34 and 35 of Arms Act, he said.

Two guns, two sharp weapons and seven mobile phones were recovered from them.