Surat: 5 NSUI members held for ‘extorting money from educational institutes’

Hasmukh Rafariya, who runs Red and White Multimedia institute, on Thursday lodged a complaint against the five NSUI members. The institute has 8 branches in Surat and over 22 across the state.

Refariya alleged that the accused had demanded Rs 1 crore from him and two other institutes in Surat — Creative Design and Multimedia Institute owned by Keyur Varasadiya, and Editech Education Institute owned by Dhaval Lungariya — for not putting up posts related to their institutes on social media. The accused threatened them that they would submit a memorandum to the District Collector, organise press conferences, get them caught by the police, and get the institutes shut.

The complaint was filed at Saroli police station and a case was registered under BNS Sections 308(2), 308(6), 61(1), and 356(1)(2) against the accused. Refariya had in his complaint alleged that the accused had taken Rs 1.5 lakh from them in mid-January and had asked them to pay collect Rs 5 lakh on Thursday. They had struck a deal of Rs 60 lakh.

Acting on the complaint, Saroli police inspector V S Vekariya and his team on Friday arrested Mitesh Hadiya (25) of Godadara and native of Amreli, Dhirendrasinh Solanki (28) of Amroli and native of Panchmahal, Ravi Puchadiya (28) of Udhna and native of Junagadh, Udhna resident Preet Chavda (24), and Morbi resident Tushar Makwana (31).

Reacting to the arrests, Gujarat NSUI president Narendra Solanki said, “We have suspended all five (accused) from their posts for six years. We will not entertain such people in our party. We will cooperate with the Surat police in the probe.”

Vekariya said, “We have arrested the five accused who had threatened owners of three private educational institutes. They had demanded Rs 1 crore from Refariya, on behalf of the three institutes and finally the struck a deal of Rs 60 lakh. The gang had collected Rs 1.5 lakh from them in January. They were pressurising Refariya to pay the remaining amount. Acting on the complaint lodged by Refariya, we formed a trap. We told them to collect Rs 5 lakh Friday. They turned up and we caught them with the amount handed over by Refariya. Further investigation is under way.”

Meanwhile, Surat city Congress president Dhansukh Rajput said, “We support the action taken by the police. We also want the police to probe if the three institutes are affiliated with any university. If the institutes are found running illegally, strict actions should be taken.”

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