Miscreants held for extortion

Five miscreants were arrested by Paradip Police on Monday on charges of extortion. Bibhuti Bhusan Mohapatra, Pradipta Dalai, Santosh Pradhan, Prasant Swain and Ashok Swain were involved in collecting extortion money from cargo-laden trucks in the Paradip Port.

On Monday morning, the five had intercepted four trucks near the Port area and demanded

` 10,000 from the driver of one of them.

Police said the trucks were parked near Atharbani area after transporting chromite from Keonjhar to Paradip which were to be unloaded at Paradip Port.

The miscreants then demanded ` 10,000 from one of the truck drivers Sahdev Sahu and when the latter did not oblige, they threatened not to allow them unload the chromite at the Port. They then collected ` 500 from Sahu and

` 300 each from the remaining truck drivers.

Receiving information, police rushed to the spot and managed to nab all of them. Police also seized a car and ` 1,100 from them. They were forwarded to court.