Cuttack, June 27: Police nabbed gangster Md Sakil, a resident of Kesharpur near Buxi Bazaar, on Sunday night.

The 26-year-old gangster was allegedly reviving extortion and organised crimes in the city.

A special squad tracked him, along with one of his associates, to Karempudi at Guntur in Andhra Pradesh on Sunday. The police have also arrested Sakil's aide Wasim Akram.

Cuttack deputy police commissioner Sanjeev Arora said: "Md Sakil had been regularly terrorising traders and other local people over phone with demands of extortion money. People were so scared of him that they did not even dare to come forward and lodge a complaint."

Sakil was also involved in several other crimes. "As many as 22 criminal cases, including a murder case and those of kidnapping and attempt to murder, had been registered against Sakil at the Cantonment, Mangalabag, Madhupatna, Malgodown, Purighat and Badambadi police stations between 2010 and 2017," Arora said.

Police sources said the gangster, who was earlier a member of the Kendrapada-based Tito gang, formed his own gang after his release from jail in January this year. He was frequently resorting to bombings and firings to threaten people.

Extortion related crimes had gone down here following the arrest of Dhal Samant brothers in January last year. But, such activities again started being reported from Cuttack city after Sakil's release from jail. The police had practically weeded out organised crimes, such as extortion, by arresting more than 35 goons in a span of less than six months last year.

"Lately, we started receiving information of extortion demands. We formed teams to nab Sakil immediately after that," the police officer said.

On April 17, a special squad of the police arrested Sakil's aide Sk Babu. Sakil, however, managed to give the cops a slip then. He used to frequently change his hideouts to avoid police arrest.

Yesterday, Sakil was produced before a local court in Andhra Pradesh and remanded in jail custody.

Cattle blood bank

The Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT) is set to have a blood bank for cattle.

A committee headed by the chief secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi has given a favourable response to the OUAT's proposal for the blood bank and has decided to open up the technical aspect of running it for discussion, sources said.