A bizarre extortion racket has come to light in Karnataka's Belagavi district, where four men allegedly posed as journalists and police personnel, staged a fake ganja raid and extorted money from an unsuspecting man by threatening to send him to jail.
According to an NDTV report, the accused allegedly demanded Rs 2 lakh to Rs 3 lakh from the victim after falsely accusing him of dealing in ganja. Fearing arrest, the victim paid Rs 60,000 before later approaching the police.
Fake Raid To Trap Victim
The police stated that the incident happened in the afternoon on July 18, at about 5 pm. Mehboob Babusab Jamadar, the complainant, lodged his complaint with the police and said an unknown man came to him and forced him to buy two packets of ganja for an amount of Rs 1,000.
Soon after, four men arrived in a car claiming to be police officers and journalists. They allegedly took Mehboob to a nearby sugarcane field, accused him of selling ganja and opened the packets in front of him as part of what appeared to be an official raid.
Police said the accused photographed and filmed the entire episode to make the operation look genuine.
Threatened With Jail
The group then allegedly forced Mehboob into their vehicle and drove him near the Hukkeri Police Station.
They allegedly warned him that he would be booked in a ganja case and sent to Hindalga Central Jail unless he paid them money.
Police said the accused initially demanded Rs 2-3 lakh. Unable to arrange the entire amount, Mehboob handed over Rs 60,000 in cash.
When he failed to pay the remaining amount, the accused allegedly uploaded the recorded video on a social media platform run under the name "GD TV" to pressure him into making the remaining payment.
Police Investigation
Following the complaint, police registered a case under relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and formed a special investigation team. The team traced and arrested all four accused in Belagavi on Friday.
The arrested men have been identified as Kallappa Basavanni Malaj, Mallikarjun Siddappa Julfi, Prithviraj Narayan Chauhan and David Jacob Tangeral. According to police, the four were operating as YouTubers and allegedly impersonated both journalists and police personnel to extort money from people.
Cash, Vehicles Seized
During the operation, police recovered the car allegedly used in the crime, a Hero HF Deluxe motorcycle, two mobile phones and Rs 34,000 in cash believed to be part of the extorted money.
The accused were produced before a court in Hukkeri and remanded to judicial custody. Police said further investigation is in progress.