Balasore, Sept. 30: Police arrested four persons for attempting to sell a fake coin bearing the images of Ram, Sita and Hanuman here today.

The coin, which had apparently been minted in 1818 by the East India Company, is believed to have mystic powers. Rackets from this region used to deal with the coin on the pretext of its "supernatural power".

The accused have been identified as Dillip Palei, 32, of Keonjhar, Pradip Sethi, 48, and Dudhiram Marndi, 36, of Balsore and Rupel Soren, 60, of Cuttack.

Inspector in charge of Khantapara police station Surendra Nayak said: "Acting on a tip-off, we arrested the accused from a lodge at Khantapara."

"The main accused was in possession of the coin and wanted to sell it to the other accused for Rs 2 crore. The coin will be sent to Bhubaneswar for laboratory testing," he said.

The accused were booked for cheating, criminal conspiracy and theft of antique materials and sent to jail after their bail petitions were rejected.

Earlier, several crimes have been committed in the district over the Hanuman coin. A few years ago, a murder, too, had taken place at Nilgiri over it.

Rabi Rout, a social activist from Nilgiri, said: "The Hanuman coin never existed. However, frauds make huge profits in the name of this coin by fooling the people, who want to become instantly rich through the coin's supernatural powers."

Prison review

Overcrowded sub-jails in Ganjam, including ones at Kodala and Bhanjanagar, have become a nightmare for authorities as they face difficulties in accommodating the growing number of inmates.

"Kodala sub-jail has a capacity of 93, but it houses 181 prisoners, including females. At Bhanjanagar, there are 282 inmates against a capacity of 260," said Berhampur DIG (jails) Gopabandhu Mallick.

Ganjam collector Prem Chandra Chowdhury also expressed concern over the situation during a review meeting at Chhatrapur and asked the jail officers to relocate some prisoners to other jails. Officials of all the seven prisons in Ganjam - Berhampur Circle Jail, Bhanjanagar, Chhatrapur, Kodala, Aska, Sorada and Digapahandi - attended the meeting. The collector asked them to keep a strict vigil on the smuggling of mobile phones, gutka and other narcotics into the jails.

The district administration supplies water through tankers due to the water shortage in the district. The collector asked the officials to build a reservoir on the jail premises to tackle the situation.

An official said that despite the state government's announcement that it would provide Rs 75 per meal to each prisoner, authorities were still providing the earlier rate of Rs 60 for food. Mallick said introduction of shift duties for guards was a problem due to insufficient staff members.

Additional reporting by Sunil Patnaik