Bokaro: Seven persons were arrested after the police busted an extortion racket in Balidih area on Thursday. The gang members were targeting local traders by threatening them in the name of notorious criminals, the police said.Weapons, mobile phones and sim cards were seized in the encounter, while the gang’s kingpin Prince Kumar Gupta sustained injuries.Bokaro SP Harvinder Singh said, “The gang members were threatening local businessmen by making calls and sending messages from multiple mobile numbers. They demanded extortion money in the name of notorious criminal gangs linked to deceased gangster Aman Sahu, along with Rahul Dubey and Mayank Singh, to instil fear among victims.”A special investigation team, constituted under DSP (City) Alok Ranjan launched a coordinated operation based on intelligence reports and technical inputs. During the raid, Gupta opened fired on the police team while trying to escape. In retaliatory action, Gupta was injured and taken into custody. Singh said Gupta has a criminal history with around 10 cases registered against him in various police stations across the district.The other arrested accused have been identified as Shyam Kumar Singh, Ajay Singh, Om Prakash Pal, Jaynendra Shukla, Golu Kumar and Bhupendra Singh.“Investigations further revealed that Gupta and his associates collected contact details of local traders and passed them on to accomplices such as Prakash Shukla and Prince Khan, who then made extortion calls posing as gang members,” said SP.