Man held for bid to extort Rs 1.5 lakh from coaching institute owner in Bihar

The Delhi Police's Crime Branch has arrested a man for allegedly trying to extort money from the owner of a coaching institute in Bihar, officials said on Friday. The accused, identified as, Mritunjay Kumar Pandey (21), a native of Bettiah in Bihar was involved in an extortion case in that city, they said.

According to police, a person, who runs a leading coaching institute in Betiah received extortion calls. The caller had demanded Rs 1.5 lakh as "protection money". The complainant alleged that some persons followed him to the coaching institute and threatened him.

During the investigation, the Bihar Police traced the location of the mobile phone used to place the extortion call to Delhi-NCR, following which they sought assistance from their Delhi counterpart, a senior police officer said. The accused was nabbed on Friday when he came to ISBT Kashmiri Gate to board a bus for Punjab, Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) Rajiv Ranjan said.

During interrogation, Pandey disclosed that he and his associate Nanhki had planned to extort money from the victim. They called him several times and threatened him. They also sent some associates to follow him in Bettiah, the officer said. However, when a case was registered by the Bihar police, Pandey left Bettiah and reached Delhi, the officer added.

The accused is previously involved in five criminal cases, including that of possession of illegal firearms, extortion and murder in 2014 and 2017, police added. His associate, Nanhki is a known criminal and involved in more than a dozen cases of extortion from businessmen in Bettiah, Bihar, they added.

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