Police bust four-member extortion gang

DHANBAD: Police on Tuesday busted a four-member gang that tried to extort Rs 5 lakh from sub divisional magistrate (SDM) Mahesh Santhalia. One of the accused, Moin Raja, posed as chief minister Raghubar Das' personal assistant to carry out the extortion plan.
Santhalia, who was also in-charge of Dhanbad divisional jail, said he had been receiving extortion calls for the past two months.
Police, based on Santhalia's information, made an elaborate plan to nab the criminal. Sathanlia was used as bait to lure Raja to a pre-decided location to collect the extortion amount on August 21. Police nabbed Raja when he arrived at the spot. Based on Moin's confession, police were able to arrest the other gang members from Hazaribag.
SSP Manoj Ratan Chothey said on Tuesday afternoon that mastermind Subodh Yadav and other members, Izaz Ahmed and Subodh Kumar, were history-sheeters and had earlier served prison sentences for various crimes. Police seized a car and mobile phones from their possession.