Malkangiri: Malkangiri police Sunday arrested two persons including a junior clerk of Khairaput tehsil in the district for demanding Rs 5 lakh as extortion from a revenue supervisor, impersonating Maoists.
The arrested were Keshab Khila, the junior clerk and Ram Chandra Majhi, a resident of Pujarmunda village under Malkangiri police limits.
According to police, the duo had been making phone calls to K Chinna Rao, a supervisor of Motu tehsil, and demanding Rs 5 lakh impersonating Ramudu, a Maoist commander of Malkangiri division for the last 15 days. They had also threatened to kill Rao if he didn’t give them the money.
Later, Rao filed a complaint with Malkangiri police in this connection. A special team was formed to probe the matter.
During preliminary investigation, the police reviewed the call details of Rao and found that the threatening calls were coming from Serpalli in Pandripani.
Meanwhile, Rao received another phone call and the caller asked him to come with Rs 5 lakh to a bridge near Korukunda Saturday. But, the duo didn’t come to the spot to take the money.
They again called Rao Sunday and asked him to bring the cash covered in a red towel to the same spot and he did so.
However, the special team comprising, IIC Soumandra Sekhar Tripathy, DSP Pradeep Kumar Dash, SI Sushant Kumar Dash, Sukant Kishor Pradhan and Manas Ranjan Swain arrested the duo while they were taking the money near the bridge.
A case against the accused was registered at Malkangiri police station and they would be produced in a court Sunday, said SP Jagmohan Meena at a press meet.
PNN