Bhubaneswar, Sept. 1: The Capital Police today arrested three persons who created a ruckus at AG Square, had an argument with the traffic police and beat up a havildar.

The policemen had tried to stop the trio at the Zero Tolerance zone as they were driving recklessly. The three were allegedly drunk. When the police officers tried to take them to the police station, they threatened them with dire consequences claiming to be closely linked with a “powerful” minister.

“After checking them with a breath analyser, we found they were drunk. They were verbally abusing the policemen on duty. We handed them over to Capital Police station,” said a senior traffic police officer.

A traffic havildar who was on duty at AG Square at the time was beaten up by the youths. They were identified as K.C. Rout of Laxmi Sagar, S.K. Lalu and Mitu Patra of Jharapada. They were riding on two motorcycles.

“When we stopped them they started quarrelling and abused us verbally as well as physically. They even assaulted one of our traffic policewomen deployed here. When we tried to take them to the police station, they threatened us saying they were closely related to a minister,” said the havildar, on condition of anonymity.

The Capital Police booked them under sections 341 (wrongful restraint), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 294 (obscene acts and songs), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code. “They were produced in the court,” said a police officer of Capital police station. Later, they were sent to Jharapada jail after the court rejected their bail pleas.