As per a press release issued by police on Monday, stolen gold and diamond ornaments and cash worth Rs 14,93,500 were recovered from the accused woman. A man and a woman were arrested during a police raid in Vatva area of Ahmedabad, on Saturday, after they allegedly tried to extort money from a resident by posing as an RTI activist and a journalist, respectively.
According to police, the incident occurred on Friday morning when complainant Tariq Saiyyed (34), a resident of Gokul Dham society in Vatva of Ahmedabad, was doing construction work on a driveway road leading to his residence. According to the complainant, four persons — a woman and three men — had entered his house in a bid to extort money from him.
Among the four accused, one Parvati Sharma identified herself as a reporter for Narayani news portal, Chiman Lal Sharma posed as an RTI activist and the other two accused, Mustafa Tinwala and Suresh Gondalia, posed as crime beat reporters. Police said that they have arrested Parvati Sharma and Chiman Sharma, both residents of Gujarat Housing Board society in Bapunagar of Ahmedabad.
“The four started questioning whose permission I had taken to undertake the reconstruction of the road stretch that cuts to my house. When I told them that I am doing this out of my own will, they said that they will stop my construction work if I don’t pay them Rs 50,000. They then told me to be ready with cash on Saturday noon. The next day, I called my friend Mushtaq Ghanchi to my residence and around 12:45 pm, the four accused entered my house. When I told them that I don’t have Rs 50,000 with me, the woman journalist told me that I have to give them money. I had Rs 11,500 cash with me, which they forcibly took away. Meanwhile, Mushtaq dialed the 100 number and a police control room van arrived within five minutes. All four accused tried to escape, but two were caught in the process,” said Saiyyed in his complaint.
“We have booked the accused under IPC sections 384 for extortion, 452 for house trespass and 114 for offence committed when abettor present. The other accused will be nabbed soon,” said an officer at Vatva police station.
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