Uttarakhand police on Sunday arrested Umesh Kumar Sharma, Chief Executive Officer and editor-in-chief of local Hindi news channel Samachar Plus, from Ghaziabad for allegedly forcing staff to conduct sting operations on politicians and bureaucrats with the intent of extorting money from them. An FIR against Sharma was filed in Dehradun-based Rajpur police station on August 10 under Sections 386 (extortion by instilling fear of death), 388 (extortion by putting any person in fear of an accusation), and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC. The complainant Ayush Gaur, Editor (investigations) with Samachar Plus, has accused Sharma of using sting operation videos to extort money from bureaucrats and politicians. Uttarakhand ADG (law & order) Ashok Kumar said, “Sharma was arrested by Uttarakhand police from Ghaziabad on allegations from his staff member that he had compelled the staff to perform sting operations for extorting money. Sharma is being brought to Dehradun.” In 2016, Sharma hit the headlines for a sting operation against Congress leader and former Uttarakhand chief minister Harish Rawat during the political crisis in the state. In the video, Rawat was purportedly seen fixing a deal to buy back rebel Congress MLAs.
