E-Paper
Extortion gang on UP-Bihar border busted, 2 cops among 18 arrested
18 cops suspended, Ballia SP Dev Ranjan Verma and ASP Durga Shankar Tiwari transferred and put on waiting list. CO Sadar Shubh Shuchit also suspended.
Varanasi Eighteen people, including 16 touts and two UP Police constables, were arrested on Thursday for their alleged involvement in extortion of money from truck drivers on UP-Bihar border. The raid was conducted by ADG zone Piyush Mordia and DIG, Azamgarh range, Vaibhav Krishna at the Bharauli crossing under Narhi police station in Ballia district on UP-Bihar border during the wee hours .
Eighteen police personnel, including in charge, Narhi police station and three sub inspectors, including outpost in-charge Korantadih, three head constables, 10 constables and one constable driver have been suspended.
Ballia SP Dev Ranjan Verma and ASP Durga Shankar Tiwari have been transferred and put on the waiting list. IPS officer of 2014 batch Vikrant Vir has been made the new SP of Ballia.Meanwhile, CO Sadar Shubh Shuchit has been suspended and open vigilance probe of the properties of CO, SO and outpost in charge has been ordered.
To note, in the wake of recent accidents involving buses and trucks with expired validity and no permits, the Uttar Pradesh chief secretary and director general of police have directed top officials of all the zones for strict and large scale checking of vehicles. As a sequel to the directives, the ADG led the operations on the ground.
The arrested touts include Ravi Shankar Yadav, Vivek Sharma, Jitesh Chaudhary, Sonu Singh, Ajay Kumar Pandey, Arvind Yadav, Umashankar Chaudhary, Jawahar Yadav, Dharmendra Yadav, Harendra Yadav, Salam Ansari, Anand Kumar, all residents of Ballia, Dilip Kumar Yadav of Ghazipur, Virendra Rai, Virendra Singh Yadav, of Buxar in Bihar and Vikas Rai of Kaimur in Bihar, as per police .
The arrested cops include constable Haridayal Singh and constable Satish Gupta. Head constable Vishnu Yadav and constables Deepak Mishra and Balram Singh fled the scene .
Deputy inspector general of police, Azamgarh, Vaibhav Krishna said that a complaint was received that some people were involved in extortion of money from trucks passing from Bharauli crossing .
ADG zone Piyush Mordia conducted a raid and 18 people were arrested from the spot. ₹37,500 cash and 14 bikes were recovered from them. Three police personnel managed to flee , said the DIG and added that action would also be ensured against them. The DIG said that strict action would be ensured against all those involved in the extortion racket and such raids would be conducted elsewhere too in the range.ADG Piyush Mordia, who led the entire operation, said that it was the responsibility of the police station in charges to stop any such extortion.
At Narhi police station the room of the station in-charge was sealed. Station in-charge Pannelal was missing from the spot but the barracks of the policemen were searched
Police said investigation revealed that the arrested accused used to extort ₹500 from every vehicle owner. .
Modus operandi
Police said that during interrogation the accused revealed their modus operandi. The brokers used to speak to the truck drivers to know when the trucks would leave Buxar in Bihar and enter the area under Narhi police station in Ballia of Uttar Pradesh. As soon as these trucks entered Narhi area, around Rs. 500 was taken from each truck. An estimated 1000 trucks entered Ballia from Buxar every night, so in one night, ₹5 lakh was extorted by the gang members. Later, the brokers and the cops involved split the money, police said.
It has also come to light that the Narhi police station in-charge got a share of the spoils.Two notebooks have been recovered from the possession of the brokers in which details of the trucks which passed the previous night and for several days and nights before that are mentioned.
From Bharauli intersection of Narhi police station area , some trucks enter Ghazipur district via Korantadih post , while some go towards Rasra police station area and some others go to Ballia via Phephna . During the spot inquiry of arrested constable Haridayal Singh posted at Narhi police station, it surfaced that trucks which went from Bharauli trisection to Ghazipur via Korantadih outpost were also stopped by the local police in front of the outpost and extortion was done in an organized manner through some brokers.
To confirm this information, ADG Piyush Mordia and DIG Vaibhav Krishna boarded a truck at Bharauli Trisection and reached Korantadih where in front of the outpost , a constable Satish Gupta was extorting money. Gupta was arrested and one Ashok, a tout, fled from the spot. He was a personal worker of outpost in charge of Korantadih.
A case had been registered against Narhi police station in-charge sub inspector Pannelal, outpost in-charge Korantadih sub inspector Rajesh Kumar Prabhakar and head constable Haridayal Singh, head constable Vishnu Yadav, constable Satish Gupta, constable Deepak Mishra, constable Balram Singh and 16 touts under Section-111, 309 (4), 310(2), 61(2), 318 BNS and 7/13 Prevention of Corruption Act 1988 at Narhi police station, a senior police officer said, and added that FIR was registered on a complaint filed by public relations officer of Azamgarh DIG.
DIG, Azamgarh, has instructed ASP Azamgarh to investigate the matter. The residences of police station in-charge Narhi, outpost in-charge Korantadih and the involved constables have been sealed.
