ETRealty.com:
Mohali: Thursday, 26 November 2015.
Police have
booked five men from Kharar for allegedly procuring information about anomalies
in building projects in Punjab using Right to Information Act and then using
the details to blackmail builders.
The five
accused - Kharar residents Deepak, Rahul, Rinku, Lal Chand and Jasbir Singh -
have been booked on a complaint by Ludhiana-based builder Amrtipal Singh. The
complainant has alleged that the accused would procure information about
housing projects in the state using the Right to Information Act. As soon as
they got information about anomalies in the projects, the accused would call
builders and threaten them with holding press conferences and revealing
everything if they did not pay the blackmail amount. The accused had already
taken Rs 14 lakh each from two Kharar-based builders, it has been alleged.
Singh alleged
that the accused were using WhatsApp to deliver the blackmail messages. The
complainant said the text messages read: "Your project is yet to be
approved by the government. If you don't pay us, we will defame your company
and you will face huge loses."
As per police
sources it was found that the accused had filed over 25 more RTI applications
regarding building projects in the region. The purpose of filing these RTI
applications was to blackmail the builders.
No police
official could be contacted for comment. All accused have been charged with
sections 384 (extortion), 506 (criminal intimidation), 511 (Attempting to
commit offences punishable with imprisonment for life or other implementations)
and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of IPC. All accused are absconding.
.JPG)
.JPG)
