From Our Correspondent
TURA: Police in Tura have busted a gang of extortionists headed by a young militant leader, arresting all the members in separate raids in and around the town since Thursday night.
The Tura area commander of the Liberation of A’chik Elite Force (LAEF) known as Habil T Sangma (22) who went by the name of Agil, a resident of Wadanang, was arrested in Babadam village on Friday after he fled Tura following the arrest of his two close accomplices on Thursday night.
Police raided the house of Bredy Jordan B Marak (22) at Dakopgre locality during the night and caught computer teacher Sebastian Ch Marak (24) of upper Rongkhon and Luthenbirth R Sangma (23) who is originally from Resubelpara in East Garo Hills. All three were placed under arrest and brought to Tura police station for interrogation.
Their interrogation led to the arrest of three other gang members from Nakham Bazaar who were caught red-handed collecting money from traders on Friday afternoon. The three extortionists have been identified as Jodin D Shira (23), Freshwell Marak (35) and Riksrang Ch Marak (17).
They hailed from Betasing area of Ampati civil sub-division.
Police have seized two motorcycles used by the gang for issuing demand notes and collecting extortion money besides incriminating documents.
According to police, the gang has been behind a large number of extortion incidents in Tura in which many innocent persons have paid up over fear of reprisal by the gang who sometimes claimed to be GNLA militants and at other times as LAEF.
“They use to also impersonate the GNLA while making phone calls to businessmen and other traders,” said the police.
From traders and businessmen the gang did not spare even petty vendors, teachers and junior government employees, it is reported.
The gang was led by Habil T Sangma who once played a leading role in a Garo comedy film called Awili as a child actor by the name of Agil.
The gang use to sometimes collect the extortion money directly and at other times provide the victims with the bank account number where in they were instructed to deposit the amount. The bank account was operated by computer teacher Sebastian Ch Marak who would later withdraw the money and hand it over to the LAEF area commander.
The gang is alleged to have had plans to revive the LAEF by purchasing weapons with the money they collected through extortion. Police say that the group has confessed to having collected lakhs of rupees from their extortion racket in less than two months from Tura.
