Madhya Pradesh cops among 5 arrested in Noida for alleged extortion

New Delhi: Five people, including two sub-inspectors and a constable of the Madhya Pradesh Police, have been arrested in Uttar Pradesh's Noida for alleged criminal conspiracy and extortion, officials said on Sunday.

The policemen arrested belong to the Cyber Cell of Jabalpur zone in MP and have been charged with extortion and criminal conspiracy, while the other two are brothers facing a ponzi case, the officials said.

Additional Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Love Kumar said a four-member police team from Jabalpur had come to Noida on December 15 to probe the ponzi case lodged there, but three of them were themselves found involved in extortion and conspiracy.

"Suryabhan Yadav was accused in the ponzi case in which a person identified as Chandrakant Dubey was a complainant. The MP police team had come to investigate that matter but intended to make money from Yadav and offered to release him," Kumar told reporters.

"The police officials had picked up Yadav from his office in Sector 62 the next day (December 16) and taken Rs 4.70 lakh from him. They had also offered to get one of Yadav's bank accounts in Sector 18 de-frozen in exchange for some money. This account had Rs 58 lakh and was frozen by the MP police," he said.

Those held have been identified as Rashid Parvez Khan and Pankaj Sahu, both sub-inspectors in the Cyber Cell, Jabalpur Zone of MP Police, constable Asif Khan, and Suryabhan Yadav and Shashikant Yadav, both natives of Azamgarh district in Uttar Pradesh and accused in the ponzi case, Kumar said.

The police said an Apple McBook used in the crime and eight mobile phones belonging to different companies have been seized from the accused.

An FIR has been lodged at Noida's Sector 20 police station under Indian Penal Code sections 395 (dacoity), 384 (extortion), 120B (criminal conspiracy), the police added.