Farmer attempts extortion after destruction of crops

ALLAHABAD: A young farmer turned towards crime after his potato crops were destroyed due to lack of irrigation.

The farmer, a BA first year student, demanded extortion of Rs 20 lakh from a cold storage owner but was nabbed by cops on Wednesday.

SP city Siddharth Shankar Meena said a cold storage owner Vijay Kumar was receiving extortion calls from some unknown person since last two months. The caller claimed that he was a shooter and demanded Rs 20 lakh as extortion. He also threatened Vijay of dire consequences if he failed to pay the money.

Vijay approached Kotwali police and lodged an FIR on August 11 when he and his wife received two more calls from the same person in the following days.

Taking help of mobile surveillance, the crime branch and Kotwali police traced and arrested the person who was making the extortion calls. The accused was identified as Mohammad Parvez of Sahabpur village in Nawabganj area in trans-Ganga. Parvez, 20, informed the police that financial condition of his family was not good and destruction of their crop added to their woes. Parvez’s family comprises elderly parents, two sisters and a brother who is tempo driver.

Parvez often used to visit a cold storage in Soraon area for storing his crops. He collected all information about storage owner Vijay Kumar including his mobile numbers.

Parvez was sure that Rs 20 lakh was not a big amount for Vijay and he will pay the amount if threatened with dire consequences, SP City further said.

WOMAN GOES MISSING

ALLAHABAD: A 24-year-old woman went missing while her hair and pieces of broken bangles were found lying near her doorstep. The incident took place in Gaddha Colony under Kareli police station of the city late on Tuesday night.

Police reached the scene and launched a search for the missing girl but she could not be found till reports last came in.

As per reports, resident of Gaddha Colony in Gaus Nagar area of Kareli, Mohammad Zahir’s daughter Ruby had gone to lock the main gate of her house at around 11 pm on Tuesday. Family members were suspicious when she did not return.

Residents and the family launched a search but Ruby was not found. Inspector Kareli Shiv Mangal Singh reached the scene and carried out investigations.He said a missing complaint has been lodged and teams were keeping an eye on railway and bus stations. It appears that the bunch of hair found was not cut and instead the cluster was of naturally fallen hair.