Post News Network
Berhampur, March 24: A racket involving collection of extortion money by a dreaded criminal, lodged in the special sub-jail at Bhanjanagar in Ganjam district, has been busted, the police said Tuesday.
This came to light Sunday when the police arrested three persons, including two teenaged Plus II students, who allegedly were doing the groundwork outside the prison for undertrial Siba Jena, the police said.
The police registered a case against Jena, an accused in a murder case. He allegedly made extortion calls to a fisheries officer of Bhanjanagar.
In December last year, the fisheries officer received a threatening call from Jena, demanding `10,000. He recorded the call and lodged an FIR with police.
“We tracked the mobile phone calls and arrested the trio, who were working for the jail inmate,” said inspector-in-charge (IIC) of Bhanjanagar police station, AK Sahu.
During interrogation, the police came to know that the inmate was also extorting money from some forest officials through his aides. But the officials are yet to lodge any complaint with the police, Sahu said.
The incident has put a question mark on security in the sub-jail and exposed the prisoners’ access to mobile phones.
“We regularly check the prison and belongings of the inmates. We did not find any cell phone during raids,” said superintendent-cum-jailer Upendra Mohapatra.
The special sub-jail houses 280 inmates against its capacity of 260. Several dreaded criminals and Maoists are lodged in the prison, sources said.
The sub-jail was in the news when an undertrial was shot dead by his co-inmates near the prison gate in February, 2013. After committing the murder, they escaped from the jail. Deceased Kalia Swain (35) was a double murder accused, jail sources said.
