After probing a complaint, a Punjab Vigilance Bureau team from the flying squad laid a trap and caught the accused Umardeen red handed while accepting extortion money Rs 1.50 lakh from the complainant as a second installment in the presence of two official witnesses.
[Photo: Twitter/@PunjabVigilance]
The Punjab Vigilance Bureau (VB) has arrested three persons, including a journalist, for allegedly blackmailing a government official for extorting Rs 2.50 lakh from him.
Disclosing this on Monday, a spokesperson of the state VB said two property agents Umardeen and Saleem along with the reporter of a private TV channel Rupinder Kumar alias Dimple, all residents of Nabha in Patiala district, have been arrested from Nabha on the complaint of a registry clerk at Nabha tehsil.
Giving details, the spokesperson said the complainant had approached the VB and alleged the accused Umardeen and his accomplices have been blackmailing him and demanding Rs Five lakh from him in lieu of not complaining against him to the VB and making the video viral for accepting a bribe of Rs 500.
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“The complainant clarified that he had not received any bribe during the registry in which Umardeen was witness but was taking back Rs 500 in lieu of exchange of notes handed over to a person. The accused shot a video of this exchange of Rs 500 note with his cell phone with the intent to extort money from him. Umardeen had already taken Rs 50,000 from him as a first instalment after the deal was struck at Rs 2.50 lakh,” the spokesperson said.
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After probing the complaint, a VB team laid a trap and accused Umardeen was arrested red-handed while accepting Rs 1.50 lakh from the complainant as the second instalment in the presence of two official witnesses. The VB team has also recovered Rs 40,000 from Umardeen out of Rs 50,000 which he had taken earlier from the complainant as a first instalment. Subsequently other co-accused in this case Saleem and Rupinder Kumar have also been arrested from Nabha, the spokesperson said.
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