Srinagar: Police on Friday arrested three people, including a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Panch from Sopore town of Baramulla district on charges of extortion.
According to a police spokesperson, Mudasir Ahmad Sheikh of Panzipora filed a complaint with the police alleging that during the intervening night of April 3-4, some unidentified persons barged into his in-laws’ house at Nadihal along with weapons and asked them to drop the same at south Kashmir. The complainant also alleged that the unknown men also took away two mobile phones and threatened the family not to disclose this to anyone.
Acting on the complaint, the police spokesperson said, a case FIR number 20/2021 under sections 450, 506 IPC & 7/25 Arms Act was lodged at Police Station Panzalla and investigation was set into motion.
During the course of investigation, he said, police took advantage of modern techniques and zeroed in on one person identified as Mehraj ud Din Rather, a Panch.
“During questioning, he confessed his involvement in the commission of crime and involvement of three other persons identified as Mohammad Saleem Wani, a Sarpanch of Hardpora Achabal, Anantnag, Bashir Ahmad Lone of Nadihal and Muhammad Dilawar Khawaja of Dachinpora, Ruhama,” the police spokesperson said.
Subsequently, he said Lone and Khawaja were arrested while Sarpanch Wani is still at large. Efforts are on to nab the third accused.
Divulging more details of the case, the police spokesperson said that during further course of investigation, it came to fore that the Panch and Sarpanch had conspired to extort money from Lone Traders.
“It was also disclosed that Panch contacted Lone and Lone contacted Khwaja for obtaining some fake weapons for committing the crime. The fake weapons have been also seized by police and further investigation in the matter is going on,” he added.
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