Police on Friday busted a gang of young girls from Gujarat who used to extort money from people on national highways and main roads in Muzaffarpur district, around 80km north of Patna.

The girls, clad in jeans and T-shirts, would threaten to file fake sexual harassment cases against people who didn't pay up.

The cops swung into action after a group of residents of Kolhua village on road complained that some young girls were involved in extortion from passers-by.

Senior superintendent of police Vivek Kumar formed a team headed by the station house officer (SHO) of Women's police station Kumari Jyoti. The team nabbed six members while they were extorting money from truck operators and bikers on Muzaffarpur-Sitamarhi road. The cops from nearby Ahiyapur police station were asked to assist the raiding team.

The police were surprised when the arrested girls revealed that they had put up at a big hotel of the town from where they used to operate. The gang of 30-40 members targeted people travelling on bikes or in luxury cars. "Initially, they tried to mislead the police by disclosing wrong identities," said Muzaffarpur town deputy superintendent of police Ashish Anand.

Later, the police raided the hotel in Maripur (Imali Chatti) in Muzaffarpur town and nabbed 15 others taking the total number of arrests to 21. Nine others were arrested from Turki. "Some others are still absconding. Their interrogation will throw more light on the modus operandi," DSP Anand told The Telegraph over phone.

The police had received complaints of extortion by girls from outside the state from Kolhua, Sadadpur and Bairia for the past week. "First, we suspected local criminals but we took the complaints seriously when more people reported similar incidents," Anand added.

"One of the girls reportedly revealed to the police that they had been lured on the pretext of jobs in a non-government organisation. Instead, the middlemen forced them to extort money," said an investigating officer.

"The 30-member group has six members each. They even threatened to implicate youths in sexual harassment cases if denied money," the police officer said, adding that raids were still on to nab others involved in the crime.