E-Paper
Loni municipal councillor arrested for demanding money from school owner
Ghaziabad: The Ghaziabad police arrested a councillor with Loni municipal council late on Wednesday night for allegedly attempting to extort the owner of a school.
Ghaziabad: The Ghaziabad police arrested a councillor with Loni municipal council late on Wednesday night for allegedly attempting to extort the owner of a school. The police said that the arrest was made after an inquiry, following a complaint by the school owner.
The suspect was identified as Vijay Pal, 29, who contested the 2017 Nagar Palika elections as an independent candidate and won the councillor seat from Sablu Garhi, ward 27, of the Loni municipal council. According to the police, the FIR was lodged on September 16 after a complaint was made by Intzar Khan, a resident of Mustafabad in Delhi who runs the SJ Convent Public School at Malik City in Loni.
“I got a call on July 21, from a man asking whether my school was recognised or not. I told him that I have all approvals for running the school. He called me outside the school, and saw the councillor sitting in a car. He told me that if I wish to run the school I will have to pay him ₹5 lakh. I told my father about the incident,” Khan said in his police complaint.
“On August 26, the councillor barged into the school with four or five others and issued threats, and demanded ₹5 lakh. I tried to convince him that I have proper approvals for running the school. The incident was also captured on CCTV. After he left, my father gave him a call but he misbehaved and issued further threats. After that, we approached the police,” he added.
The police decided to conduct an inquiry into the complaint before making an arrest.
“The inquiry revealed that the councillor had issued threats to the victim and was demanding ₹5 lakh from him. CCTV camera footage also gave us clues. Finally, after we were convinced with the evidence, the councillor was arrested by Loni police for demanding extortion and issuing threats. We are also searching for the others who had barged into the school during the incident,” Neeraj Kumar Jadaun, superintendent of police (rural), said.
The Loni police registered an FIR under the Indian Penal Code’s sections 506 (criminal intimidation), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace), 384 (demanding extortion) and 147 (rioting) at Loni police station.
The councillor’s phone remained switched off and he could not be contacted for comment.
