Extortionists arrested

lucknow: the state secretary of the samajwadi party’s lohia vahini along with his associates was arrested by the krishnanagar police on charges of extortion from a placement and security company. according to reports, arpita sinha of sector d in aliganj lodged an fir with the krishnanagar police stating that she owned a placement and security company in the name of pcq.on march 17, at around 2pm, abhishek tewari alias gopal, who claimed to be the state secretary of the lohia vahini, along with his associates rajat mukherjee, raju mukherjee, ravi and two others arrived at the office of the pcq in a white maruti car. as arpita’s husband shukant sinha was not present at the office, the miscreants called an employee arun dubey. abhishek allegedly threatened dubey to call sinha at once. tewari and his associates tried to force their way into the office and when dubey and a security guard intervened, they were assaulted. tewari and his associates left the scene demanding rs 1 lakh to be handed over to them and threatened to shoot sinha dead and kidnap his children if the money was not paid. arpita sinha said that in september 2001, raju mukherjee took shukant sinha to darulshafa on the pretext of meeting a senior government official. however, at darulshafa sinha was confined to a room and his car keys snatched away. sinha was then forced not only to return rs 80,000 which he had collected from 40 candidates applying for placement but another rs 20,000 also, after which he got the keys of his car back. the matter was then taken up with some senior officials of the district police and then rajat assured that nothing of this sort would be repeated again. however, on march 17, rajat and his associates again created ruckus outside the pcq office. after the fir was lodged, police arrested abhishek tewari and rajat on charges of extortion. the maruti van used in the crime was also seized by the police. police said that the accused had an organised gang of extortionists and had managed to stay away from the police for quite sometime owing to the absence of a complainant. the accused were sent to jail.