Jamshedpur, Oct. 9: A 20-year-old youth, who was part of a six-member gang impersonating CPI(Maoist) rebels to extort money from a Jamshedpur businessman, was arrested from Dalbhumgarh, Ghatshila, 65km away from here.

Rajkumar Mahto, originally from Lakhipur in Chakulia, was among those who threatened Jamshedpur's Contractors' Area resident Jitendra Kumar Agrawal on September 13, asking him to part with Rs 7.3 lakh or face dire consequences for "displeasing Maoists".

Agrawal, who owns a mineral processing unit at Makabera village in Dalbhumgarh called Gajanand Ferro, mustered courage to lodge an FIR with police on September 30. He also said the threat call came from 7478318195.

A team led by Dalbhumgarh OC Tanzil Khan, which arrested Rajkumar from Chatro village in Dalbhumgarh today, has seized the cellphone.

East Singhbhum SSP Anoop T. Mathew said on September 13, six masked men had turned up in front of the gate of Agrawal's factory with a letter, purportedly from Maoists, with the cash demand, asking the security guard to hand it to Agrawal, and followed it up with a phone call to the businessman.

"The gang has nothing to do with Maoists. It effectively used the Maoist calling card as rebels still have a presence in Ghatshila. We will arrest the rest of the five members soon," SSP Mathew said.

During interrogation, Rajkumar confessed the gang had earlier extorted Rs 2.5 lakh from a Chakulia-based paper mill owner Gyanchand Jaiswal, but the petrified man had not gone to the police.