An employee of the Central Coalfield Limited (CCL) was arrested on charges of demanding levy from an industrialist here in the name of Kundan Pahan, a CPI(Maoist) operative, a senior police officer today said.
The accused employee, Pritram Ajay, who was working as a Grade-2 Clerk in CCL's Jarangdiha colliery in Kathara area of Bokaro district, was arrested from Bokaro for making calls from his mobile phone to a city-based company demanding Rs ten lakh in the name of Maoists' Area Commander Kundan Pahan, who was active in Ranchi, Khunti districts and wanted by the police for long, said Senior Superintendent of Police Anoop T Mathew.
Based on the details provided by the technical cell of the police about the mobile phone, a police team picked up Pritram from Bokaro for interrogation, Mathew said.
Pritram confessed that he was an accomplice of the prime accused-cum-CCL employee, Arun Kumar alias Arun Ram alias Arun Halkhor alias Arun Rawat, who was a Category I official in the Geological department posted at CCL's headquarter in Ranchi.
Arun used to introduce himself as leader of ultra outfits such as CPI(Maoists) and PLFI over phone and used to collect levy from project officers, transporters engaged in rack loading in the colliery, Mathew said.
Arun had even extorted money from members of notorious Kishore Pandey gang in Ramgarh district and used to send children to collect the money, he said.
He had arrested on similar charges from Jagannathpur police station in Ranchi and had been jailed in 2014, Mathew said adding he has been engaged in illegal activity for last three/four years and was active in Ramgarh, Ranchi and Bokaro districts.
Based on the leads given by Pritram, a police team conducted raid in the Pandra residence of the Arun but, he managed to escape, the SSP said.
However, the police recovered three mobile phones, Rs 64,000 in cash, bank pass books, several ATM cards and a Scorpio vehicle owned by Arun from his residence and also the mobile phone of Pritram from which he made the ransom call to the local industrialist.
A case in this regard was registered on the basis of a senior official of the company, Shiv Kumar Choudhury, under section 387 IPC under Bistupur police station, Mathew added.
