The police busted a racket and arrested three persons for extorting money from the Forest officials in name of Vigilance Department.
The trio was identified as Ashok Mohapatra from Odagaon, Niranjan Swain, retired officer of Department of Home, presently working as OSD in Finance Department, and Bhaskar Behera, retired Head Clerk of Forest Department, now working as OSD in Forest Department from Bhubaneswar.
On examination, they revealed that Niranjna Swain introduced Ashok Mohapatra to Bhaskar Behera. Bhaskar Behera being an ex-forest officer identified the forest officials who were to be targeted and collected their mobile numbers and gave it to Ashok Mohapatra who called up those officers and threatened them and asked them to deposit money in his account. Subsequently, the amount was shared by the three accused.
On tip-off about the operation of the racket, the Vigilance Department had encouraged the victim officers to share the information with it and assured them to take prompt action.
Accordingly, one Dillip Kumar Das, Ranger, met the Director, Vigilance and complained about this racket which was going on for some time. The Director,
Vigilance acting promptly on the complaint, instructed the DIG Vigilance (South) to coordinate with the local police for prompt and effective action.
Accordingly, this confidential information was shared with the SP Ganjam who was requested to take prompt action. The SP Ganjam directed Badagada police to register a case and constituted two teams to arrest the racketeers.
Further investigation is on to find out the number of officials who have been cheated and the amount which has been extorted by the accused persons.