The Indian Express: Ahmedabad: Monday, 01 May 2023.
A man, associated with a YouTube channel as its editor, was on Sunday sent to police custody for two days by a local court for allegedly extorting money from a private school trustee in Ahmedabad.
Ashish Kanjariya, the accused, also allegedly threatened trustees from at least 30 schools in the Ahmedabad district in a similar manner, police said. He even filed RTI applications, the officials said, against the school that did not give the extortion money, and defamed the schools via his YouTube channel – ‘Pol Khol.’
“When we went to arrest Ashish Kanjariya on Friday, he was found in an inebriated state. He did not have the permission to drink liquor. So we also booked him under the Prohibition Act. He was arrested for illegal drinking on Friday night. Later, he was formally arrested in the extortion case on Saturday afternoon. We have got his custody for two days from a local court,” said MS Trivedi, investigating officer at the Crime Branch. At Kanjariya’s residence in Bopal, Trivedi said, files of 27 schools were seized during searches.
“We have also got evidence that Kanjariya extorted Rs 4 lakh from a school in the west area of Ahmedabad on April 24. We will soon recover the amount,” the officer added. The Crime Branch has also launched an investigation into the purchase of a bungalow by Kanjariya in the Rameshwar Paradise Villa near Kasandra village in the Ahmedabad district.
As per the FIR filed Friday, the alleged extortion took place between September 2017 and April this year. Sanjay Singh, one of the trustees of the Edunova Science Higher Secondary School in Maninagar, accused Kanjariya of allegedly blackmailing and harassing him. Singh complained he was contacted via WhatsApp messages and calls. He was allegedly asked to give money on the pretext the school was being run illegally and would be shut down once the claims were proven using RTI. The alleged harassment began on September 9, 2017, when Kanjariya contacted Singh. He introduced himself as the editor of the ‘Pol Khol’ YouTube channel. He asked the complainant to meet him, police said.
“After a week, he again asked me to meet him. I was unwell, I did not go. Then he found out about my classes in Vastrapur, and came to meet me there,” said Singh, as per their FIR. In the two months that followed, Kanjariya allegedly boasted about his contacts with the education minister and other officials. He also asked Singh to arrange Rs 8 lakh, as per the complaint, to avoid defamation of his school. On November 9, 2017, Singh was asked to pay Rs 5 lakh. The next day, Singh’s co-trustee Harendra Singh Malik was also threatened. Singh told police he ended up paying Rs 25,000 to the accused at the time. Other position holders on the school board were approached in the months that followed. In 2020, the trustees recorded some interactions with the accused to gather evidence, according to Singh.
On April 21, Kanjariya again called another trustee of the school, this time demanding Rs 3 lakh. Singh then filed a complaint against him.
A man, associated with a YouTube channel as its editor, was on Sunday sent to police custody for two days by a local court for allegedly extorting money from a private school trustee in Ahmedabad.
Ashish Kanjariya, the accused, also allegedly threatened trustees from at least 30 schools in the Ahmedabad district in a similar manner, police said. He even filed RTI applications, the officials said, against the school that did not give the extortion money, and defamed the schools via his YouTube channel – ‘Pol Khol.’
“When we went to arrest Ashish Kanjariya on Friday, he was found in an inebriated state. He did not have the permission to drink liquor. So we also booked him under the Prohibition Act. He was arrested for illegal drinking on Friday night. Later, he was formally arrested in the extortion case on Saturday afternoon. We have got his custody for two days from a local court,” said MS Trivedi, investigating officer at the Crime Branch. At Kanjariya’s residence in Bopal, Trivedi said, files of 27 schools were seized during searches.
“We have also got evidence that Kanjariya extorted Rs 4 lakh from a school in the west area of Ahmedabad on April 24. We will soon recover the amount,” the officer added. The Crime Branch has also launched an investigation into the purchase of a bungalow by Kanjariya in the Rameshwar Paradise Villa near Kasandra village in the Ahmedabad district.
As per the FIR filed Friday, the alleged extortion took place between September 2017 and April this year. Sanjay Singh, one of the trustees of the Edunova Science Higher Secondary School in Maninagar, accused Kanjariya of allegedly blackmailing and harassing him. Singh complained he was contacted via WhatsApp messages and calls. He was allegedly asked to give money on the pretext the school was being run illegally and would be shut down once the claims were proven using RTI. The alleged harassment began on September 9, 2017, when Kanjariya contacted Singh. He introduced himself as the editor of the ‘Pol Khol’ YouTube channel. He asked the complainant to meet him, police said.
“After a week, he again asked me to meet him. I was unwell, I did not go. Then he found out about my classes in Vastrapur, and came to meet me there,” said Singh, as per their FIR. In the two months that followed, Kanjariya allegedly boasted about his contacts with the education minister and other officials. He also asked Singh to arrange Rs 8 lakh, as per the complaint, to avoid defamation of his school. On November 9, 2017, Singh was asked to pay Rs 5 lakh. The next day, Singh’s co-trustee Harendra Singh Malik was also threatened. Singh told police he ended up paying Rs 25,000 to the accused at the time. Other position holders on the school board were approached in the months that followed. In 2020, the trustees recorded some interactions with the accused to gather evidence, according to Singh.
On April 21, Kanjariya again called another trustee of the school, this time demanding Rs 3 lakh. Singh then filed a complaint against him.