3 held for blackmailing politicians, officers

LUCKNOW: With the arrest of three fraudsters, UP

STF

on Sunday claimed to have busted a gang which had extorted money from politicians and senior government officials in other states. The gang members posed as officials from the Central Secretariat and threatened to frame their targets in false cases. They were now targeting legislators and officials in UP.

The arrested persons were identified as Kamlesh Sharma of Faizabad, who was the gang's mastermind, and his aides Karunesh Tiwari of

Faizabad

and

Ashok Kumar Singh

of Lucknow. They were arrested from

Gomtinagar

.

Police recovered Rs 4.16 lakh cash,12 SIM cards, a fake voter ID, seven mobile sets and three telephone directories of UP,

Madhya Pradesh

and Haryana governments.

The STF had begun a probe after MLC Vijay Yadav had stated in the UP Legislative Council saying some men posing as officials of Central Secretariat had called him up to seek details of UP government departments. STF got whiff of the accsued when they demanded Rs 60,000 from Ram Awadh Maurya, an executive engineer of Jal Nigam in Bhadohi. The accused asked Maurya to reach Patrakarpuram Crossing in Gomtinagar with cash. STF sleuths laid a trap and nabbed the trio when they came to collect money.