Six suspected Maoists arrested

Rourkela, Aug 17 (UNI) Police today arrested six suspected Maoists while trying to extort money from a businessman.

Rourkela Superintendent of Police Santosh Kumar Bala said while four were arrested from the Singhasini temple under Udit Nagar police station area, two were arrested from the Rourkela Railway station.

Police identified the accused as Mahya alias Raja Ahyar (48) Rohit Das (43), Manoj Kumar Choudhury(36) of Jharkhand, Bijay Kumar Yadav (28) and Jayamangal Ray (21) of Bihar and Binod Bihari Sahu of Jajpur.

Mr Bala said acting on a tip off, the police raided the temple and arrested Manoj, Binod, Bijoy and Jayamangal from the temple while Mahya and Rohit were arrested from the railway station.

Police seized two vehicles, four live bombs, explosive materials, two countrymade guns, four live catridges, five mobile phones and Rs 15,000 in cash.

Mr Bala said the police arrested the group while they were trying to extract Rs 48 lakh from one Yogesh Dalmia, a businessman who had already paid Rs one lakh to the group.

Police said the group was operating in Rourkela, Sundergarh, Keonjhar, Barbil, Joda and Badajamunda in Jharkhand in the name of MCC Lal Salam since 2003.

Mr Bala said Mahya was the area Commander and the mastermind in all the operations. All the deals were being done at Gouri garden under Lingaraj Police station of Bhubaneswar where Mahya was staying at present.

Police said interrogation of the gang was on and some more people are expected to be arrested soon.

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