Doc, science student held for extortion

The Ghaziabad Police on Tuesday arrested a doctor and a B.Sc student on charges of extortion. Peeyush Khandelwal reports.

The Ghaziabad Police on Tuesday arrested a doctor and a B.Sc student on charges of extortion.

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The two accused—Mitra Prakash (30) and his accomplice Debashish Chaudhary— were arrested during a raid near EDM mall near Anand Vihar Border, Ghaziabad.

The duo, posing as television reporters trapped senior government officials using spy cameras while offering them bribe which amounted to anything between Rs 20,000-50,000, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Raghubir Lal said.

"They paid bribes to the government officials while recording it using spy cameras hidden inside their jackets and shirts. Afterwards, they extorted the officials at will threatening them that they would reveal the CDs of the sting operations if they didn't pay up," SSP said.

The duo was caught by the Indirapuram police officials through electronic surveillance after a complaint was lodged against them.

"We have been in this for over a year and targeted officials who demanded bribes. We wanted to remove corruption from government offices. We wanted to join the media but could not gain entry," the accused said.

"The entire extortion money was used to lead a lavish lifestyle," SSP said.

Police, meanwhile, are also investigating the involvement of senior officials of a television channel.

"We will conduct inquiries into the matter whether these two people had any closeness to certain senior media officials," SSP said.

Police recovered a Scorpio, a 315-bore rifle, live cartridges, passports, mobile phones, laptops and spy cameras from the two accused.