Bhawanipatna: In a shocking incident, a 24 year-old young man was arrested for attempting to dupe his father by posing as a fake Maoist and demanding Rs 35 lakh extortion money in Odisha's Kalahandi district. The boy was identified as Ankush Agarwal, son of Dinesh Agarwal - a well-known contractor in the area. He was nabbed over a week after his father filed a formal police complaint. The incident was reported from Rupra Road within Narla police limits.

As per reports, Ankush orchestrated a plan to extort money from his influential father by impersonating a Maoist. On October 6, he wrote a threatening letter posing as a Naxalite and left it inside his father's car. The letter demanded Rs 35 lakh failing which the entire family would be eliminated. 

To build up pressure and ensure the plan works, he sent a similar threat to his father's business partner. On getting the letter, the family immediately reported the matter to the police. As investigation picked up, cops, to their utmost shock,found that it was a hoax threat by none other than the complainant's son.

Police said the letter seemed to lack authenticity as all names of Maoist cadres were spelt wrong. The manner of writing too seemed immature. This gave major cues to cracking the case, they said. "The letter was in Hindi. The contents appeared haphazard and there were personal references to the family which indicated involvement of someone very close to them. We got a tip-off from a person to whom the boy had confided about the plan," a senior official told mediapersons.

"The accused had done a course in computers. He was unemployed. We arrested him after he confessed to the crime during interrogation," he added.