Four people, including three journalists and a Station House Officer (SHO) posted at Sector-20 Police Station in Noida, were caught red handed by police on Wednesday for allegedly extorting money from a call centre owner to exclude his name from the First Information Report (FIR) registered at sector-20 Police Station. Police have also suspended additional SHO of the sector-20 police station who is absconding since the raid.
According to Vaibhav Krishna, SSP Gautam Budh Nagar, they received a complaint from one Pushpendra Chauhan a resident of Ghaziabad who stated that the SHO of sector-20 police station Manoj Pant is harassing him to extort hefty cash in crores to do favor to exclude his name from a case registered against him in November 2018.
“Two teams were formed who conducted the raid on the intervening night of Tuesday-Wednesday and arrested the SHO and his three accomplices’ journalists identified as Udit Goel, Raman Thakur and Sushil Pandi while the fifth the additional SHO Jaivir Singh succeeded in fleeing from the spot,” said the SSP.
SSP said that they were caught red handed by the police team.
“When the team reached the sector 20 police station, SHO Manoj Pant and his deputy additional SHO Jagvir Singh and his three facilitators claimed as journalists-Udit Goel, Raman Thakur and Sushil Pandit were engaged in extorting money from the call centre owner at gun point.
“A cash of `8 lakh was in the hands of SHO Pant while a journalist was holding a pistol in his hand. The team arrested all and landed all the four in lock up and initiated legal action. A case under section 384 of Indian Penal Code (IPC), 7/8/13 (13d) Anti corruption Act and section 30 arms Act was registered against them with immediate effect,” said the SSP.
“During interrogation, the journalists revealed their names as Raman Thakur a resident of E 413, BITA I Greater Noida, who is working for India tv, Udit Goel a resident of B-102, Migsun Green Mension Surajpur Site C Greater Noida working for ABP News and Sushil Pandit a resident of P/C 127, sector 37 in Kasna Greater, Noida. They claimed that they are working as stringers with news channels,” the SSP added.
