The phone rings in the dead of night and the unidentified caller immediately asks to speak to someone whom he refers to as 'Bhai'.

This is the murky mafia syndicate run by gangsters who issue threats to contractors or individuals and instruct to stay away from participating in tendering process or face consequences.

For a long time, this has been the old fashioned way of the tender mafia operating in Odisha or elsewhere in the country to bag contracts by scaring away other prospective contractors and bidders.

The mafia also have other, more sinister, methods of pressurising, threatening and terrorising those who do not fall in line.

It is usually because of the atmosphere of fear created by the mafia dons and their associates that their businesses have thrived for decades in several parts of the state.

The story of the rise gangster siblings, Sushant and Sushil Dhal Samant, is not any different.

Police have seized a compact disc from the residence of the Dhal Samant brothers containing audio-recordings of several threat calls that were made to contractors and other individuals.

The telephonic recordings indicate that the Dhal Samant brothers operated their crime syndicate in a 'corporate style' in the city.

Sources said the recordings were used to train new members in the gang on how to successfully make extortion or threat calls.

The mafia aslo rely on a number of criminals who ready to kill on orders. Known as sharpshooters, they form an inseparable unit of a gang.

Most gangs have at least seven to 10 sharpshooters, another five to 10 persons who work for the gang to collect information about individuals, businessmen and other sources to extort money.

The job of another chain of members of the gang is to keep links with arms dealers, most of whom are from Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh, from where firearms are smuggled into the state.

The gangsters running any extortion or tender fixing racket spend about Rs 5 lakh to 10 lakh per month towards paying salary to members of the gang. This can go up to Rs 20 lakh.

The recent arrest of brothers Sushant and Sushil has now led to apprehensions about the rise of rival gangs that have been vying to pierce through the crime syndicate run by the Dhal Samant group in Cuttack.

It is suspected that the two rival gangs of the Dhal Samant brothers, including the one led by Tito alias Usman Ali, might team up with smaller criminal groups to claim their supremacy in the city.

Smaller criminal groups such as Chaga, Minja, Tapu might also take over the tender fixing and extortion racket business, which is worth over Rs 80 crores to 100 crores annually in Cuttack district.

A senior police official said most of the tender mafia begin by issuing threats to prospective as well as participating bidders.

The tender business revolves around construction activities and bulk supply contracts belonging to the various government departments and allied nodal agencies.

Through their aides, the tender mafia then start threatening the prospective contractors and ask for commission to allow them to bag contracts.

Not just government tenders, mostly from the roads and buildings division or irrigation department, the mafia also controls various land and property deals and sand quarries, as they are the sources of easy money with minimum risk involved.

Although the e-tendering process was introduced to check such crime, the mafia have come up with various solutions to overcome such hurdles.

The tender mafia now rely on various contractors and form a pool system or cartels, which operate in groups.

One contractor pays a heavy commission or bribe to another contractor to quote higher prices, thus making the first one or any other person in their group the lowest bidder, said B.K. Sharma, special director general of police (crime).

Senior officials said whether it was e-tendering or physical tender process, it was the mafia that controlled it as at times the lowest bidder who had legally won the contract was not allowed to execute it.

This is done with the support of officials in various government departments whom the mafia pays money every month ranging from Rs 40,000 to Rs 1 lakh depending on the nature of the contract.

A nexus between government officials, contractors and the criminals runs the show and make huge profits from the contracts.

"E-tendering has not been effective as confidentiality or secrecy is not being maintained. Crucial information about the tenders is leaked by government staff to the mafia either because of fear or under the influence of money," said Sharma.

Sharma said the special task force has already begun working to put a stop to such organized crimes by tender mafia, gangsters and criminals based in Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur and Cuttack districts, including the Dhal Samant brothers.

"We have begun compiling information about criminals and their associates and their activities are being monitored. Property details and other credible data about them will be shared with respective district police for further action," Sharma added.