Balasore: Police have arrested three persons for their involvement in an incident of firing at a hotel on OT Road here last week.

The accused persons have been identified as Jajan Panigrahi, 20, of village Meghadamburu in Sadar police station limits and Sandip Kumar Pati, 19, of village Niliabag in Sahadevkhunta police station limits. The third accused is a 17-year-old minor.

The accused have been charged under various sections of the IPC and arms act. The teenager will be produced before the juvenile justice board, said superintendent of police B. Jugal Kishore.

The prime accused, Jajan, and Sandip were apprehended from Raipur in Chhattisgarh following raids, a police officer said.

"The accused persons were arrested from their Raipur hideout through mobile phone surveillance," said Kishore.

"They had opened fire at the newly inaugurated hotel as the owner didn't comply to their demand for ransom," he said Hotel owner Sudarshan Pradhan, 36, said he refused to pay the goons Rs 15 lakh towards protection money.

Pradhan said he had received threat calls from two mobile numbers, while one of them identified it as Jajan's. He had demanded money before the launch of the hotel. However, he had ignored them.

The three criminals had come in a motorbike around 7.30pm. They had opened three rounds of fire to scare off the hotel staff and Pradhan. They fired the shots after the hotel's security guard told them that the owner was not available.

Jajan had fired the shots, the police said. While one bullet pierced through the front glass of the hotel, luckily no one was hurt. There were six guests in the hotel when the shots were fired. They sped away before the hotel staff could react.

The CCTV footage of the hotel had captured the photographs of the accused persons. Shortly after the incident, the police had recovered three empty cases of bullets from the spot. The police had also seized the bike used in committing the crime.