LUCKNOW: After Anita Lodhi, BJP MLA from
Dibai, four more party legislators, a former minister and an office-bearer have got extortion threats of Rs 10 lakh on WhatsApp on Tuesday. The sender threatened to eliminate their families if the amount is not paid within three days. Anita
Lodhi had been threatened similarly on Monday.
All the four MLAs, Shashank Trivedi from
Mahauli in Sitapur, Vinay Diwedi from Mehnaun in Gonda and Prem Narayan Pandey from Tarabganj in Gonda and Lokendra Pratap Singh from Mohammadi in Kheri, former minister Rajesh Tripathi from
Gorakhpur and party office bearer at BJP headquarters in Lucknow Sushil Chaurasiya have approached police.
DIG, law and order, Praveen
Kumar said that in all cases, the sender Ali Budesh Bhai sent a WhatsApp message asking them to pay Rs 10 lakh within three days failing which members of their families would be killed one after another.
"We have lodged separate FIRs in all cases on charges of extortion, threatening, and IT Act. The cases have been referred to UP
STF," said Kumar. Six separate FIRs have been lodged; four at Hazratganj, one in Mahanagar, and one in Vibhuti Khand.
Representative Image