Four booked for extorting money from bookie in UP's Bulandshahr

BULANDSHAHR: Four people claiming to be journalists have been booked for allegedly extorting money from a bookie in return for convincing the local police to let him operate his betting racket in the area, an official said on Wednesday.

Two of the accused -- Kuldeep Saxena and Ansh Kaushik - have been arrested while the others are still at large, police said, adding that Rs 90,000 were recovered from them.

Senior Superintendent of Police Santosh Kumar Singh said Ashok Kumar (60), a bookie, had contacted the accused and sought their help to influence the authorities and paid Rs 1.60 lakh in return.

Later, the four demanded Rs one lakh more from Kumar and threatened to expose him if he refused.

The accused were booked under sections 420 and 384 of the IPC and section 8 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, police said.

According to police, Saxena is the editor of a weekly newspaper called 'Bulandshahr Anti-Corruption Mail', they said.