Bombing for extortion: Two interstate looters arrested in Keonjhar

Keonjhar, Oct 10: Keonjhar police has arrested two interstate looters in connection with hurling bombs on a hardware store located along Barbil main road on Sunday. The accused have been identified as MD Husain and Parbej Akhtar, both hailing from Jharkhand. Sources said unidentified miscreants had hurled bombs on the Odisha Hardware store on September 21. Before it, they had threatened the owner for a ransom of Rs 2.5 lakhs through an anonymous letter. Whereas,  the shop owner Dinesh Atal ignored it. Subsequently, the gang hurled bombs before the shop in order to panic the owner and demanded the sum again and again over phone. Police had lodged a case on the complaint of the shop owner, Dinesh Atal. An investigation basing on the CCTV footage was underway. However, police had got no spectacular input regarding the miscreants. Acting on the recent threat to the owner, police set a plan by sending Ramesh Atal, the brother of Dinesh to pay out the sum to the miscreants. Accordingly, MD Husain and Parbej Akhtar were trapped by police at the time of receiving the cash. During the search, two guns, five handmade bombs, a bike, and one live bullet were recovered from their possession. Barbil SDPO Himanshu Bhusan Behera said another accused Basudev Mohanta is yet to be apprehended. The three accused are wanted in a number of criminal cases in Jharkhand,  Bihar and West Bengal,  Behera added.