AMC official in police net for extortion

AURANGABAD: A building inspector of the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) landed in police trap on Tuesday for accepting extortion amount of Rs 20 lakh from a landowner. The police are on the look out for four more suspects, including two corporators, for their involvement in the racket.
Complainant Anwar Quadri owned 1.85 hectare land in Harsul area which he had bought from one Dube several years ago.After developing the land, he had divided it into several plots for sale. When the corporators and the AMC officials, involved in the racket, got wind of the plots being sold, they approached Quadri claiming that the land belonged to the AMC.
They also got the shed Quadri had erected on the property demolished with the help of the municipal staff, including building inspector Mohammad Anwar Khan (49), a resident of Chelipura. They, subsequently, demanded Rs 70 lakh from Quadri.
Following constant pestering and blackmail by corporators and the municipal staff, a troubled Quadri paid Rs 10 lakh to avoid further inconvenience, the police said. However, they pressed him for more money. To pressurise him further, the issue was also raised in the last standing committee meeting of the AMC. Against the backdrop of the meeting, Khan contacted Quadri threatening that the land could be taken over by the AMC.
Fed up with the threats, Quadri approached the police. Led by assistant commissioner of police Sandeep Bhajibhakre, the police team laid a trap and nabbed Khan when he was accepting the cash at Quadri's residence on Jatwada road on Tuesday.
"We are looking out for the four accused too," said Vasant Pardeshi, the deputy commissioner of police. He, however, refused to name the other suspects named in the FIR, saying, "They might abscond if the names were made public." The suspects have been booked for extortion, threatening the complainant and for conspiracy.