By IANS,
Lucknow : Three cops, posted with the Crime Branch of Lucknow police, were arrested late Tuesday night after the public caught them extorting money on the Delhi-Lucknow highway, police said.
Constables Rajesh Singh, Bachha Singh and Neeraj Kumar stopped two trucks carrying food grains near the Madiyaon locality Tuesday evening and demanded money. “They also threatened to send us to jail when we refused,” said Majid, the truck driver.
The cops were in plain clothes and forced Majid to phone Prahlad, the food grains consignee.
“Initially, they demanded Rs.3 lakh (Rs.300,000) from me but finally the deal was settled at Rs.26,000… I asked them to come to the Navin wholesale food grain market and collect the money,” said Prahlad.
However, businessmen in the market gathered in large numbers and surrounded the cops when they reached there.
“The businessmen informed us about the incident and nabbed the cops when they reached there to collect the money. We were also informed that the constables were four in number… one of them managed to flee from the market,” inspector Pankaj Singh of Aliganj told IANS.
“They have been suspended and efforts are on to nab the fourth one,” senior superintendent of police Akhil Kumar told IANS