Bhubaneswar: Dhenkanal police on Thursday busted a major crime syndicate by arresting eight men accused of posing as employees of National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and defrauding vehicle owners on highways in the state.The arrested men hail from Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Bihar. The accused were identified as Sanjay Singh, 38, Rahi Suddin, 35, Vikash Kumar Srivastava, 33, Sibshankar Ramsingh, 46, Rohit Kumar, 33, Pawan Sharma, 39, Abinash Sharma, 27, and Sunny Madhre, 31."The accused are part of a larger network engaged in organised crime. They were reportedly stopping vehicles, collecting money, and selling first-aid kits and retro-reflective tapes to drivers on national highways while posing as NHAI staff. To deceive the public, they wore uniforms resembling those of road safety personnel," Dhenkanal SP, Avinabh Sonkar, said.Preliminary investigation revealed that the accused were operating under the direction of Mohammed Hussain from Bihar, who is believed to be the mastermind. The accused confessed to receiving Rs 700 each per day for their fraudulent activities, with the collected money being handed over to the gang leader.Police charged the accused with multiple offences, including cheating, forgery and organised crime. Organised crime is a new addition to BNS. Any ongoing unlawful activity, including kidnapping, robbery, vehicle theft, extortion, land grabbing, contract killing, economic offences, cybercrimes, trafficking of people, drugs, weapons, or illicit goods or services, and human trafficking for prostitution or ransom, is categorised as organised crime. The charges carry a minimum punishment of five years, which may extend to life imprisonment, along with a fine of Rs 5 lakh.