BHUBANESWAR: The CBI on Sunday arrested a Delhi Police constable here for allegedly trying to extort Rs 2 lakh in cash from a man for not arresting him in a false cheating case.
Sajjan Singh Yadav, who is also a member of the intelligence fusion and strategic operations (IFSO) of Delhi Police’s special cell, allegedly demanded Rs 4.5 lakh from Udaya Kumar Sahoo, editor of a news portal, and threatened to frame him in a cheating case unless he complied with his demand, the CBI said. Yadav sent constable Amit Lahucha to Bhubaneswar to collect the money from Sahoo.
Sahoo, who lodged a complaint with the CBI’s anti-corruption branch on Saturday, went with Rs 2 lakh cash to hand it over to Lahucha near Master Canteen Square. The CBI sleuths, who were already present there, caught Lahucha red-handed with the bribe money. A case has been registered against Yadav but the CBI is yet to arrest him.
In January, Yadav had arrested another Bhubaneswar-based journalist, Manoj Kumar Seth, for impersonating Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath and extorting money from different public sector undertakings. Seth had created a fake email ID in Adityanath’s name and would send forged letters to the companies, urging them to release advertisements to Seth’s news portal.
Sahoo had been made a witness in the case since he was present at the spot from where Seth had been picked up by Yadav’s team. “On February 13, Yadav sent me a notice and asked me to appear before him so that he could record my statement,” Sahoo said.
