Cuttack, July 24: Police are doing their best to keep the Badambadi bus stand area free from criminals involved in extortion of money from private bus operators.

The cops have been conducting raids in the Sankarpur-Badambadi area since Friday and so far arrested seven people. Those arrested are Yashovanta Chatoi alias Nagah, Pradipta Rout alias Lipun, Manoranjan Sethi alias Dipu, Sushil Kmar Chatoi alias Dhumei, Ratan Chatoi alias Geduh, Akhay Behera alias Akhi and Gopinath Barik alias Gopan.

"All the seven were involved in cases of extortion and attempt to murder among others," said Badambadi police station inspector-in-charge Biranchi Narayan Pati.

More than a thousand buses from various parts of the state and the city move in and out of the bus stand on a daily basis.

The police said the main problem for the bus operators in the area had been extortion, which thrived in the form of a well-organised system of supervisors stationed at the bus stand under the patronage of extortion mafia.

Most of the buses had to shell out money to these supervisors for smooth movement of buses at the terminus. The bus operators had to shell out up to Rs 8,000 every month. There had been several complaints, but the police had been able to do little as the the Cuttack Private Bus Owners' Association used to promote the supervisor mechanism.

Things changed a fortnight ago when the association's secretary Ajay Barik banned the system at the bus stand. The police took the opportunity and got the ban ratified at a general body meeting of the association.

What followed took the police by surprise. On the night of July 19, goons hurled bombs at the house of Barik, who is also deputy mayor of the Cuttack Municipal Corporation. The bombing damaged the glass windows of his cars.

The cops suspected that the bomb attack was a fallout of the ban on the supervisor system initiated by Barik and thereafter planned the raids in the Badambadi-Sankarpur area.

"We do not want take chances as violence related to the Badambadi bus stand affairs had resurfaced after a gap of three years. We want to flush out all the criminals involved in the extortion racket," said Anil Mishra, assistant commissioner of police (zone VI), Cuttack. "The raids will continue till all the criminals involved in extortion racket under the guise of supervisors are taken into custody."

The police feel the ban on supervisor system has ruffled the feathers of the extortion mafia and possible violence in the future cannot be ruled out.

"The supervisor system was a bane for bus operators because as it promoted extortion. So it should be eliminated at any cost," said Barik.