The police in Hooghly district arrested a notorious anti-social Ramesh Mahato along with his two aides from Bora-Serampore road.
Mahato is charged with committing more than 20 murders and with 50 extortion cases in Hooghly, Howrah and Burdwan districts in West Bengal, Hooghly SP Pravin Tripathy said.
Mahato began his criminal life by looting scraps of the closed JK Steel factory in Serampore along with another anti-social. He regularly extorted money from real estate companies and factories.
His luck deserted him when he demanded a huge amount of money from the Bengal-Sriram housing project at Hindmotor in Uttarpara recently. The Bengaluru office of the Bengal Sriram group apprised the chief minister's office of the extortion bid.
Acting on a tip-off, a police team from Singur raided Bora-Serampore road late last night and arrested Mahato with his two aides from inside a car which was carrying 60 kg 'ganja', the SP said.
He was produced in a court in Chisurah, which denied him bail.
