Itanagar, April 25: The proscribed Ulfa has started extorting money from businessmen in Arunachal Pradesh.

This came to light after two cadres of Ulfa’s 28 battalion were arrested from Bihpuria in Assam’s Lakhimpur district yesterday, Arunachal Pradesh police said today.

Ghanakanta Saikia and Deepak Bhuyan of Majuli were arrested on charges of serving an extortion notice for Rs 50 lakh to a businessman at Banderdewa in Arunachal Pradesh last week and intimidating him.

A 10-member police team, led by sub-inspectors N. Sora and Krishendu Dev from Banderdewa outpost, arrested the two around 2.30pm yesterday when the rebels came to collect the money from a relative of the businessman.

Plainclothes policemen, who were waiting for the cadres, swung into action when the latter approached the relative.

The two rebels tried to flee on their motorbike but the policemen chased them from Banderdewa to Bihpuria and arrested them, Dev said.

The sub-inspector said the militants’ accomplices fled, too, as soon as they got a whiff of the police’s presence.

The police seized the motorcycle (AS-07B-1392) used by the militants, a mobile phone and some incriminating documents.

The two arrested Ulfa cadres told interrogators that they belonged to the 28th battalion of the outfit and that some other Ulfa cadres were also involved in extortion in the Banderdewa and Naharlagun areas of Arunachal Pradesh. The two were today remanded in police custody for 14 days by a local magistrate, adds PTI.

Dev said they had launched a search operation to arrest the accomplices who gave the police the slip.