Two persons – one of them posing as an Income Tax official – who tried to fleece Rs.2 lakh from a theatre owner were arrested by the district police in Sholavandan on Thursday.
The arrested were P.Anandan of Sholavandan and his relative V.Rajendran, a driver with the Income Tax office in Tiruchi. The theatre owner, M.Muthiah, recently purchased a two-acre land from Anandan.
“Mr.Muthiah offered a price which was more than what Anandan had expected for his land. Hence, he thought that Mr.Muthiah had made a lot of money through illegal means and planned to extort money from him,” Inspector of Police R.Venugopal, who led the special team, said.
Anandan contacted Rajendran, and they hatched a conspiracy to extort money from Mr.Muthiah by threatening him that a complaint of Income Tax evasion was pending against him.
Rajendran, pretending to be an Income Tax official, called Mr.Muthiah and demanded Rs.10 lakh as bribe to close the case against him. Rajendran wanted him to pay Rs.2 lakh in advance. On the pretext of helping Mr.Muthiah, Anandan offered to play the role of a middleman.
Meanwhile, Mr.Muthiah made a complaint with the district police, following which the police laid a trap and caught the duo red-handed.
Superintendent of Police V.Balakrishnan said people should feel free to approach the police if anyone tried to threaten them or extort money from them.
