Farmhouse owner arrested for conspiring with cops to extort money from businessman

The Haryana State Vigilance Bureau on Thursday arrested a farmhouse owner for allegedly helping two police officials in illegally detaining a call centre owner and extorting ₹57 lakh from him

The Haryana State Vigilance Bureau on Thursday arrested a farmhouse owner for allegedly helping two police officials in illegally detaining a call centre owner and extorting ₹57 lakh from him.

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The suspect was identified as one Krishan Kumar Yadav, a resident of Kherki Duala, who owns a farmhouse in Farukhnagar. He was produced before the court on Friday and taken on a two-day police remand, said officials.

According to the Faridabad vigilance department, the victim, Naveen Bhutani, who runs a call centre and sells religious products in the UK and Australia, had approached the senior officers of the department with a complaint against two officials of Kherki Daula police station, alleging that they had extorted ₹57 lakh from him and were demanding another ₹10 lakh.

On December 28, the State Vigilance Bureau, following the complaint, had arrested a head constable of Kherki Daula police station and booked its station house officer (SHO) for accepting bribes. However, the latter remains untraceable, said officials.

Bhutani had alleged that he was illegally picked up from a resort near Kherki Daula on the expressway and taken to the police station where he was beaten up by the station house officer and threatened with dire consequences. The victim told the officials that SHO had forcefully kept his laptop, which contained all his business data. He had even taken the help of a person from an outsourced agency, who scanned the company’s turn over, data and other confidential data, said officials.

The complainant was illegally detained and allegedly taken to a farmhouse in Farukhnagar, nearly 12 kilometres from the police station.

PK Aggarwal, director general of police (DGP), vigilance, said that the two policemen threatened Bhutani to put him behind bars and illegally detained him. “They forced him to make calls to his family members, friends and relatives, asking them to arrange for money. One of his friends arranged the money and came to hand it over to him. Meanwhile, he was taken around in his car by the head constable and two other men,” he said.

The victim alleged that the SHO had initially demanded ₹1 crore but after negotiation, the deal was finalised for ₹60 lakh.

“A case under Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 384 (extortion ), 341 (wrongful restraint) and 342 (wrongful confinement) of Indian Penal Code(IPC) was registered against the police officials. The investigation is underway,” police said.

Yadav has been booked for conspiracy and common intention, said the police, adding that he had helped the police to use his space despite knowing they were illegally detaining a businessman, said officials.

KK Rao, commissioner of police, said that an internal inquiry has been started against the SHO and head constable and things will be clear once the SHO is arrested. “There is no place for corruption and action will be taken against those who are found guilty,” he said.