Thomas (Special correspondent)
The Mahalakshmi Layout police have busted an extortion racket and arrested six members gang led by a rowdy-sheeter who was operating the racket through a newsportal
on social media .
The accused has been identified as,Kulli Ramesh,Santosh,Vivek, Harish, Aravind and Durgesh.
Senior officer told media persons,The racket came to light a few days ago when the accused on the pretext of loan recovery agents abducted two employees of Sai food private limited,and later called the owner Srinivas accusing him of selling expired food products and threatened to put out a story on social media if he failed to pay Rs 20 lakh .
The accused also informed that his two employees are being held hostage along with the vehicle containing snacks,till the ransom is paid .
Suspecting something fishy, Srinivas approached the police who accompanied Srinivas on the pretext of paying ransom and nabbed the accused.
However the kingpin identified as Kulli Ramesh managed to escape who was later traced to Tamil Nadu and arrested on Wednesday by the Mahalakshmi layout police inspector, Venkategowda and his team.
The other accused have been identified as Santosh who was operating the news channel under the banner TV39,along with others including Vivek, Harish,Aravind and Durgesh.
The accused confessed that they are running the racket for many months targeting small scale and cottage industries.Many people suspected to have paid them but did not complain.We are verifying on this.
Finally Bengaluru Police Commissioner,Kamal Pant has appreciated Addl CP West,Soumendhu Mukherjee,DCP North,Dharmender Kumar Meena, ACP,Malleswaram sub-division,KS Venkatesh Naidu,PI,Venkategowda and his whole team for busting the racket and nabbing all the accused and a special reward will be given to the team he added.
