Agartala, Feb. 7: Angry residents of Panisagar area of North Tripura lynched three notorious extortionists last night when a gang of five came to the area to teach them a lesson for resisting their criminal activities.

All the three ? Ranjit Das, Patal Das and Dulal Dey belonged to the families of CPM supporters. Sources said Dey was the son of a woman panchayat member of the CPM, while Patal Das was the son of a former panchayat chief of the ruling party.

Police said a gang of five comprising Ranjit Das, Patal Das, Dulal Dey, Aditya Das and Bipul Baidya had been engaged in extortion, bike-lifting, contract killing, land grabbing and other criminal activities in the area for the last few years.

On Friday, the group tried to extort money from a shopkeeper in the Panisagar market and forcibly occupy his land.

However, the local residents retaliated, forcing the gang to beat a hasty retreat. But before leaving, the gang warned the residents that they would come back and take revenge.

At 11 last night, the gang reached the market and started calling out the people who had resisted their extortion bid.

The infuriated residents, who had been looking for an opportunity like this, started beating them up mercilessly. Aditya Das and Bipul Baidya managed to escape, but the remaining three died on the spot. Though trouble continued for hours, the police were nowhere in sight. Later, the police detained five persons for interrogation.

In October 2004, the residents of Maharajganj Bazar area, located in the heart of Agartala, had similarly resisted the attempts of Amit Ghosh, who had unleashed a reign of terror and was responsible for at least 35 murders.

In a similar incident, mafia leader Tinku Lodh was driven out of the Netaji Road area by the local residents last month.

Later, the residents forced the police to register a case. Even though Lodh has CPM connections, the people of the area agreed to appear as witnesses in cases pending against him.