Man held for extortion by posing as Maoist

A man was arrested for posing as a Maoist and allegedly extorting money from people in West Singhbhum district, police said Saturday.

The man was arrested from Porahat village on Thursday, allegedly for demanding money from a school teacher by pretending to be a member of the CPI (Maoists), the police said.

The man also allegedly threatened the teacher with dire consequences in case he failed to meet his demand, a senior police officer said.

Police has arrested Varun Mahato alias Dukhu Mahato, a resident of Porahat village under the jurisdiction of Sonua police station, the Superintendent of Police (SP) of West Singhbhum district, G Krathi Kumar, said.

Mahato had threatened to kill an assistant teacher of a school at Khariamati village in case he failed to give Rs 25 lakh to Mahato, the SP said.

Mahato had also pasted a poster on a wall of the teacher's house on October 8. He had asked the teacher to cough up Rs 12 lakh then, the police said. Mahato had also threatened to blow up the teacher's house, the SP said.

The SP also said that Mahato has been engaged in such activities for the last 3 to 4 years and during investigation the police discovered that Mahato had built a house by spending Rs 15 lakh from the money he had extorted from other people.

A police team was working hard to apprehend the culprit after the teacher lodged a complaint with the police.