BJP corporator’s son posing as RTI activist held for extortion

THANE: The city police arrested a sitting BJP corporator’s son for allegedly misusing the Right to Information Act and working hand-in-glove with other accused. According to the police, Rajkumar Yadav, an ex-corporator, used to extort money from builders by citing various irregularities in their projects. This is the fifth arrest made by the anti-extortion cell, the cops said.
According to the police, Yadav along with the other accused, had demanded Rs 50 lakh from a builder. They had asked him to cough up the money if he wanted the project to go on without any interference by the TMC. The builder then paid Yadav Rs 5 lakh.

A police official said that the modus operandi of the accused was that he used to file an RTI with the civic authorities and based on their reply he would blackmail builders and extort money from them.

“Once their demand was met, they would pass on the RTI information to another accused who would also extort money from the same builder. This continued unabated and the accused used to distribute the money among themselves,” an official said. Last week, the police arrested four persons, including former corporator Sudhir Barge, for demanding and accepting bribe.