Four held by police for extortion

Hyderabad, Apr 1: Four men who had been extorting money posing as Naxals and policemen in collusion with a suspended inspector of police, have been arrested here and Rs 6.5 lakh in cash, from them.

Cyberabad Police Commissioner Mahender Reddy said while Mohammed Sahed (38), K Venkateswara Rao (43), K Tirupathi Rao (45) and Syed Kunmeer (22) had been arrested, suspended inspector Vijay Singh, Gopal, Yella Reddy and Ravinder Reddy of the same gang were at large.

Their modus operandi was to pick a target and study his background, Later, pose as personal from the Maharashtra Police/Vigilance Enforcement Police or as Naxals, abduct the victim and extort a huge sum before releasing him.

One such victim was Midhani Deputy Manager Sri Krishna, who lost Rs nine lakh on March 1. He lodged a complaint with police on March 6. During investigation, police first picked up Tirupathi Rao, who had earlier sold some land to Krishna. He named the others and Mohammed Saheb, Venkateshwara Rao and Syed Kunmeer were nabbed.

Mr Reddy said the accused were involved in the abduction of stamp vendor Prakash Gupta of Saroornagar and extortion of Rs eight lakh.

The gang also took Rs two lakh from a person hailing from Bangalore who was dealing in fake currency notes and Rs two lakh from a person belonging to Mumbai who was selling illegal gold.

UNI