Birgunj, May 5:

Two persons — a civil servant and a civilian — who were arrested on Friday for threatening local businessmen and extorting money from them were released today without any chargesheet filed or action taken, locals said.

Kauleshwar Mukhiya, a non-gazetted first class officer (subba) at district public health office, and Shivlal Mukhiya of Bara district’s Chiljhapti village development committee ward no nine were arrested on Friday while they were demanding Rs 5 lakhs on behalf of the Janatantrik Terai Mukti Morcha (Jwala Singh) from Chandra Shobha Manandhar, the manager of a hotel located at Birgunj Bus Park.

According to spokesperson for the Parsa district police office KP Sharma, police released the two after hotel manager Manandhar withdrew her statement, saying that the two had come to assist her and police wrongly arrested them.

Sharma said police had no option but to release the two after Manandhar changed her statement she had earlier filed.

The two remained in police custody for more than 48 hours but they had not been produced before a court of law.