Jajpur, July 25: A senior BJD leader is suspected to be part of a gang that had collected Rs 15.5 lakh from a Jharkhand-based mine owner.

One of the gang members had posed as the state’s steel and mines minister Raghunath Mohanty and collected the amount promising renewal of the company’s mining lease in Keonjhar district.

Jharkhand Police, which is investigating the case, is believed to have found the involvement of more political persons. When contacted by The Telegraph, Jharkhand Police refused to divulge the names of others involved in the racket saying it would “hamper the investigation”.

The suspicion about the involvement of powerful politicians arose because the arrested by Jharkhand Police last week, were in possession of official documents related to the mining lease. While interrogating the two arrested men — former president of Jajpur unit of BJD’s youth wing Chandan Rout and a self-styled journalist Biswanath Satpathy — the cops found the involvement of two more persons, including a political heavyweight.

Denying his links with the gang, Mohanty said: “I don’t know them. Several cheats are operating in the state. Thankfully, these two fraudsters have been arrested.”