Police on Saturday arrested parents of an arrested gangster for their alleged role in helping their son continue his extortion activities from the jail. The Chauliaganj police arrested Pratap

Behera and his wife Phulabati, who are parents of dreaded criminal Litua alias Bharat Behera. Litua, an associate of gangster Dhalasamant brothers, is now lodged in the Choudwar Circle Jail here for over 5 years.

Police said that Litua over telephone from jail had demanded Rs 50 lakh from a city-based businessman and asked him to hand over the money to their parents. Police also arrested 2 others in this connection who were following up the instructions sent by Litua. All the 4, including Litua’s parents, were produced in a court here, from where they were remanded to judicial custody.

Notably, police last month had also arrested two female friends of another jailed gangster, Md Shakil, for allegedly carrying out instructions of Shakil and giving effect to an extortion call made by him from jail. The 2 back-to-back cases have yet again proved that extortion calls and even death threats are made by notorious criminals regularly from Choudwar jail.

When contacted, the Jail Superintendent categorically denied that the UTPs or the convicts have any access to telephones in the jail. “Maybe, the duo (Shakil and Litua) might have made the calls with the telephones of their relatives during the time of interviews when the UTPs and convicts meet their relatives at the mulakat counters,” he said.