Man held for attempting to extort money from BJP MLA

The police said that according to the complainant, the suspect had published two news stories on the web portal, accusing the BJP MLA of wrongdoing.

A man, who runs a news website, was arrested for allegedly trying to extort ₹3 crore from a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA and threatening to run a series of news stories defaming him, the police said on Tuesday. An FIR was registered against him.

A police officer privy to the investigation, requesting anonymity, said the suspect was arrested on Tuesday from Delhi. (HT Photo)

Umesh Aggarwal, who is the sitting MLA from Gurgaon constituency, said that the suspect, who claimed to be a journalist, had been demanding money from him for over a month after threatening to run “sensational and defamatory” news stories against him.

The police said that according to the complainant, the suspect had published two news stories on the web portal, accusing the BJP MLA of wrongdoing.

A police officer privy to the investigation, requesting anonymity, said the suspect was arrested on Tuesday from Delhi. The police had received a complaint in this regard on Monday.

Aggarwal said, “The suspect had been threatening to run a third news article to defame me and had informed me of the same. He was asking for a sum of ₹3 crore. On July 11, he had asked for the money and a few days ago, he had posted a message on social media, saying that another news article defaming me would be published soon. I filed a police complaint on Monday against him for attempting to extort money.”