As is usual with NIA investigations, the bodies have reportedly been arrested following a three-day search at three different locations in Jharkhand in connection with a case of extortion and an attack on a coal mine, the NIA said in a statement on Thursday. The raids were conducted on Wednesday in Jharkhand’s Hazaribagh and Ranchi districts. They were famously aimed at the hideout of several suspects leveling accusations for the Aman Sahu gang. In these operations, the NIA recovered mobile phones and other gadgets, a Fortuner vehicle, and other items that formed the basis of the charges against them.
The case mainly focuses on an attack on the Tetariyakhand coal mine in the Latehar district of Jharkhand made in December 2020. According to this report, the gang that attacked the bus was the Sujit Sinha gang, the Aman Sahu gang, and other associated criminal gangs in a bid to extort money from him and paralyze the operations of the government in the state. Alam, the NIA, which took over the investigation in March 2021, systematically reveals all these layers of the criminal syndicate.
The premises which were searched included locations in Hazaribagh and Ranchi, and it was found that these locations were linked to some of the members of the Aman Sahu-led gang, which strengthens the assumption of the gang being involved in the coal mine attack and other incidences of extorsion. The agency’s latest maneuvers prove it is on a mission to dismantle organized crime syndicates in the area.
Earlier, the NIA had slammed chargesheet for 24 accused persons involved in the coal mine attack. Those charged included prominent members of the Sujit Sinha and Aman Sahu gangs. These include research works conducted by various online news platforms and investigations that uncovered that the attack of December 2020 was a well-coordinated plan by these gangs to take over the control of the coal mining business in the region to press on the owners for ransom and protection money.
In the same year, particularly in February this year, the NIA achieved a milestone when it arrested Shankar Yadav, a close associate of Aman Sahu. Yadav’s arrest was preceded by the police seizing ₹1. 3 crore from him during searches at five different places in Bihar. This arrest was one of the major milestones in the investigation as the NIA officers gained detailed insight into the role of the Aman Sahu gang and its financial structure, as well as the operational tactics used by the criminals.
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