SRINAGAR, Sep 19: Police on Tuesday claimed to have arrested a woman who extorted money from people by posing as a close aide of the police in south Kashmir’s Shopian district.
In a handout, the police said that Shopian Police in a coordinated and efficient manner have arrested one lady namely Mehbooba Akhtar W/O Shafkat Mohi-ud-din Kuchay R/o Kardar, Kulgam, who was acting as a tout and was extorting money from locals in Shopian.
The lady was pretending to be close to police in Shopian and in lieu of getting the persons, who are brought in for questioning under preventive detention by police, released, she extorted huge amount of money from a few families in Shopian.
She was assisted by another person namely Ghulam Hassain Shah s/o Mohd Shaban Shah R/o Behibagh, Kulgam in this fraud. In this regard, case FIR No- 158/2023 under relevant sections of law stands registered in Police station Shopian and Investigation has been taken up. Based on the information received, both Extortionists were called to Police Station for questioning.
The police spokesman further stated that the accused person disclosed the whole nexus and modus operandi that they have used to extort money from people. Co- accused Gh. Hussain Shah further disclosed that lady in discussion has extorted a tune of rupees 8.4 lakh from these families over the period of time. Police was able to recover 2.5 lakh rupees from her possession.
Further recovery is expected.
SSP Shopian, Tanushree has said that extortion is a form of blackmail and made it clear to the public that they should not fall prey to any such blackmailer. (Agencies)