ALLAHABAD: Setting an unusual example of keeping up the spirit of Rakshabandhan alive, a man was arrested for making an extortion call to his sister's mother-in-law and demanding Rs 2 lakh to teach her a lesson for constantly fighting with the former, on Thursday.
A 68-year-old woman, identified as
Sushila Devi and a resident of
Misrauli under the jurisdiction of Kodhaur police station, lodged an FIR alleging that a youth identified as Suraj had made an extortion call and had asked her to pay up Rs 2 lakh cash or face dire consequences .
Suraj was arrested on Thursday and told the police that he wanted to teach his sister's mother-in-law a lesson as the 68-year-old often used to fight with her daughter-in-law over petty issues.
SP (Pratapgarh)
Purnendu Singh said that Suraj had asked the old woman to deliver the cash at
Ramapur railway station.
"The accused had made the extortion call on August 20 night at 11pm and threatened the elderly woman of dire consequences if she failed to pay the money. When Sushila told her family about the call, they approached the police," said the SP.
During investigation, police traced the phone number and found that the call was made by Suraj and nabbed him in Narayanpur village. "While interrogating Sushila's family, police came to know that she and her daughter-in-law used to fight a lot frequently over petty disputes and Suraj's sister had complained about it to her brothers," Singh said.
The SP said that seven out of the 11 cases of extortion calls reported in Pratapgrah over the last one month were found to be fake.
"In most cases callers turned out to be acquaintances or neighbours of the complainants and even business rivals."
"In one of the cases, a vendor made an extortion call to another vendor asking him to arrange Rs 20 lakh within four days if he wanted to live. The accused vendor, who was later nabbed, admitted that he made the extortion just to have some fun."
Representative Image
