Lucknow: Nine Crime Branch personnel were suspended and 21 sent to lines here for allegedly raiding a pan masala factory and threatening to frame its owner in a false case of selling banned tobacco products if he does not give them Rs 20 lakh, police said on Monday.
SSP J Ravinder Goud suspended the officers, including three Crime Branch sub-inspectors, late last night after complaint against the personnel was prima facie found to be true.
The pan masala trader, Om Narain Singh, had on May 11 approached ADG, Law and Order, Arun Kumar and alleged that Crime Branch sleuths had raided his factory on Kursi road and asked him to pay up Rs 20 lakh, failing which they would frame him for selling banned tobacco products, Goud said.
He had also alleged that the personnel took Rs 10 lakh from his factory, he said.
Taking note of the allegations, the SSP had set up an inquiry which found the personnel prima facie guilty, he said.
PTI
