Alleging ‘hair’ in sweet, 2 brothers extort money from shop owner; held

The duo threatened the sweetshop owner of making the incident viral on social networking sites and defame him

The Division number 5 police arrested two brothers for allegedly extorting money from a sweetshop owner after they claimed to have found hair in the sweet they had ordered from the shop.

Gunny bags sealed by the food safety officers during a raid at the jaggery unit in Ludhiana. (HT PHOTO)

The accused had allegedly extorted ₹16,000 from the shop owner saying that they found a hair in the ‘jalebi’.

The accused, who were arrested on Wednesday, have been identified as Jugraj Singh, 28, of Manngarh village of Kohara and his brother Santokh Singh, 25.

The FIR has been lodged on the statement of Maninder Singh of Malhar Road, Sarabha Nagar. Maninder said that the accused visited his shop on Wednesday and ordered ‘golgappe’ and ‘jalebi’. After consuming the ‘jalebi’, the accused started creating a ruckus, alleging that they found a hair in the sweet.

The complainant added that the accused demanded ₹1 lakh from him and threatened that if he did not give them the money, they would post it on social networking sites and would defame him.

He gave ₹16,000 to the accused, who left the shop stating that they will return to take more money from him.

The complainant added that his employees told him that the duo had created ruckus in the past also.

ASI Iqbal Singh, who is investigating the case, said that an FIR has been filed against the accused under sections 384 (extortion) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC at Division number 5 police station.