In a major blow to the extortion activities carried out in the outskirts of Ranchi, police busted a gang said to be active in Ormanjhi and adjacent areas. The gang was behind the extortion threat issued to a company operating in the area on May 17 and had set a pokeland machine on fire.
A member of the gang has been arrested while two others are still at large. The incident had happened in Hedbili-Sagatola village in Ormanjhi block at 2.30 am on May 14. The miscreants had also left a letter written in red ink demanding Rs 50 lakh as extortion for operating in the area. The company — Classic Coal Company — had registered complain in Ormanjhi PS.
“The letter was written in red ink to portray as if the members belong to left-wing extremists group but in reality they do not belong to the group,” said Ranchi SSP Prabhat Kumar. According to police, Mahesh Saw and two others—Dilip Ganjhu and Bhskar Singh— and resident of Ormanjhi had visited the company’s office at Ormanjhi and assaulted an employee of the company. The three miscreants fled the spot with a dual-SIM mobile of the company’s employee. A complain was registered with the Ormanjhi police under section 384, 319, 435, 427/34 of the IPC.
Following a tip-off a team of policemen was constituted by Ranchi SSP. The team nabbed Saw from Ormanjhi area kingpin of the gang Ganjhu and Singh are still evading arrest. Interestingly, police is also examining the angle of a possible link to the Tritiya Prastuti Committee (TPC). “They may be a splinter group of TPC,” added the SSP.