Just two months after the incident in which two policemen attached to the Hill Palace police station were charged with extorting money from a young woman during her visit to the Hill Palace Museum by threatening to inform her parents about her love affair, a similar incident has been reported from Kakkanad, with the victim this time being a young man and the perpetrators autorickshaw drivers.
Muneer Koya of Athani, Muneer V.K. and Ratheesh P.R., both of Kakkanad, were arrested on charge of extorting Rs. 10,000 from a techie from Udayamperoor by threatening to reveal his affair. All three were attached to the pre-paid autorickshaw stand at Infopark.
According to the police, the accused pulled off their extortion ploy while the couple was sitting in the youngster’s car on the eastern gate of Kinfra along the Infopark-Brahmapuram road on Tuesday around 4 p.m.
They approached the car in an autorickshaw owned by Muneer and allegedly demanded that the youngster pay Rs. 10,000, failing which they would inform the girl’s parents about the affair. The couple was threatened with physical harm when they refused to pay, the police said.
Dragged out of car
As their demand went unheeded, they dragged the youngster out of the car into their autorickshaw and took him to an ATM near Edachira even as one of the three accused stood guard near the car in which the girl was seated. Once he withdrew money and handed it over to them, the accused freed the techie, the police said.
Soon after the incident, the victim filed a complaint with the Infopark police based on which all the three accused along with the autorickshaw were traced near Bharath Matha College in Kakkanad around 10 p.m. on Tuesday. The extorted money was also recovered from them.
The accused, who were produced before the court on Wednesday, were granted bail. The police are set to launch a probe to find whether the accused had indulged in similar extortions in the past.
