Kanpur (UP) May 19 (PTI) Police here have busted an extortion gang, the members of which included a traffic sub-inspector, a home guard and a female Prantiya Rakshak Dal (PRD) jawan, among others.
The gang posed as Special Task Force team (STF) and extorted money from people, a police official said on Monday.
Police have arrested home guard Rajeev Dixit (46), PRD jawan Varsha Chauhan (28), and three others including Arvind Shukla (42), Anirudh Yadav alias Vinay (28) and Anuj Kumar Yadav alias Dumpy (28).
The gang’s mastermind, traffic sub-inspector Ajit Yadav, is absconding. He has been placed under suspension, the official said. Kalyanpur Assistant Commissioner of Police Abhishek Pandey said the arrests were made after an FIR was lodged on Saturday based on a complaint from Ambika Singh Chandel, a resident of Sharda Nagar, whose house was ‘raided’ on May 8.
In his complaint, Chandel said that a gang of seven to eight people who introduced themselves as STF raided his rented accommodation and beat up his family members, including his sister-in-law and her friend, with sticks.
One of them was in police uniform. They used vehicles with sirens and displayed fake police emblems, ACP Pandey said.
“The gang forced Chandel to pay Rs 1.40 lakh in cash and make an online transfer of Rs 30,000 after threatening to push him behind bars in fake cases,” said Dinesh Tripathi, Deputy Commissioner of Police (West).
“Our surveillance team, which succeeded in gathering intelligence about the gang, was surprised to discover that one of them was a real cop. A traffic sub-inspector, home guard and a female PRD jawan were part of the extortion gang,” Tripathi said. PRD works for the preservation of public peace.
During interrogation of the arrested accused, it was revealed that the traffic sub-inspector, home guard and PRD jawan met in the line of duty recently and formed the gang. They recruited five others to assist them.
The gang mainly targeted those involved in illegal activities such as sex racketeering and gambling. The modus operandi was to first conduct surveillance and choose locations, then raid those locations dressed in police uniforms and emblems and using vehicles with sirens, said an official.
The FIR was registered under Sections 115 (2) (voluntarily causing hurt), 205 (wearing garb or carrying token used by public servant with fraudulent intent), 308 (5) (extortion) and 333 (house-trespass after preparation for hurt, assault or wrongful restraint) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and relevant sections under the Information Technology Act.
Police said they have recovered two four-wheelers, a mobile phone and Rs 3,200 cash from their possession. PTI COR NAV RUK RUK
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