Four people claiming to be journalists have been booked for allegedly extorting money from a bookie in return for convincing the local police to let him operate his betting racket in the area, an official said on Wednesday.
Two of the accused -- Kuldeep Saxena and Ansh Kaushik – have been arrested while the others are still at large, police said, adding that ₹90,000 were recovered from them.
Senior Superintendent of Police Santosh Kumar Singh said Ashok Kumar (60), a bookie, had contacted the accused and sought their help to influence the authorities and paid ₹1.60 lakh in return.
Later, the four demanded ₹one lakh more from Kumar and threatened to expose him if he refused.
The accused were booked under sections 420 and 384 of the IPC and section 8 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, police said.
According to police, Saxena is the editor of a weekly newspaper called ‘Bulandshahr Anti-Corruption Mail’, they said.