Five arrested for trying to extort Rs 1.5 lakh from shopowner

Surat: Five persons, including a woman, were arrested on Sunday for allegedly trying to extort Rs 1.5 lakh from a 45-year-old grocery shopowner in Sarthana.
The accused woman made several calls to the shopowner and later her husband tried to extort the money with help of others, accusing him of having illicit relationship with his wife.

Kailash alias Krishna Rathod (28) and her husband Mahendra, both residents of Kosad village; Dilip Miyani, from Varachha; Lalji alias Lalo Gadhthariya of Nansad village in Kamrej; and Mansukh alias Raju Tank of Old Kosad Road in Amroli were arrested on Sunday. Gadhthariya is husband of Kailash’s sister. They were arrested from their houses.

The grocery shopowner had received the first call on his mobile phone on February 22 from Kailash. After talking over phone few times, she asked the shopowner to come and meet her. When he refused, Mahendra called and abused him saying that he had an illicit relationship with his wife. Later, he threatened to share the information about his relationship with others and defame him.

Soon, he started receiving similar threat calls from the other accused. They demanded Rs 1.5 lakh to settle the matter.

Meanwhile, Tank approached the complainant and offered to help to solve the issue. It was then that the victim realized that Tank too was involved in the racket. He approached police and lodged a complaint on Saturday.