Senior Bihar cop accused of extortion, threat

Patna: A senior Bihar police officer has been accused by a liquor merchant of demanding Rs 10 crore as extortion and threatening to falsely implicate him, police said on Sunday.

Economic Offence Bureau (EOW) officials probing the case have held three persons with Rs five lakh in cash raised from the complainant. In a complaint to the Director General of Police Abhayanand, liquor merchant Tunaji Pandey alleged the DIG (Saran range) Alok Kumar of demanding Rs 10 crore as extortion, involving a middle-man, Inspector General of Police (IG), Budget, Anupama Nilekar told reporters here. Pandey alleged that he met the DIG on January 10 last where the senior cop repeated the extortion demand and threatened him with dire consequences if he failed to meet the same, she added. Pandey quoted the DIG as threatening him and harassment by implicating him with charges of selling spurious liquor and liquor with less quantity of spirit than mandated. After investigations into the DIG`s phone conversation, the DGP found corroborative evidences of the accused demanding extortion money from the liquor merchant, following which a probe by EOW was demanded into the case. Nilekar said that the EOW had lodged a FIR against Umesh Singh and another person under various sections of the IPC and and Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. Three persons were arrested, two of them identified as Ajay Dube and Deepak Abhishek from Delhi, and recovered Rs five lakh raised from the complainant, though the duo have not been named in the FIR. Singh, named in the FIR, had also been apprehended and his house searched in Saran district from where evidences related to extortion demand have been raised, the officer said. "Necessary action will be taken against the accused senior police official after completion of probe by the EOW on all points related to the matter," Nilekar said. Pandey, a native of Netwar village under Darauli police station area in Bihar`s Siwan district, runs a liquor business in Darbhanga, Siwan and Gopalganj districts. PTI