Civil defence worker arrested for extortion

He received money in his Paytm account

A Delhi Civil Defence (DCD) employee was arrested for allegedly extorting money from people in east Delhi’s Ghazipur area, police said on Thursday.

Shyam Sunder, a resident of Mandawali, joined the DCD in March this year. He was currently deployed with a team of Delhi government officials for issuing challans to violators of COVID-19 norms, they said.

Police said ₹2,000 is the fine amount for not wearing mask. But the accused asked the victims to pay ₹1,000 for not issuing challans.

DCP (East) Priyanka Kashyap said the DCD staff was involved in extortion from violators of COVID norms and was arrested on Tuesday.

“He used to receive money in his personal Paytm account from those violating COVID norms. The mobile used to receive such payments has also been recovered,” the DCP said.

According to the police, the matter came to light when Ravinder Pandey, a resident of Faridabad, said that he was travelling with his family in a car from his village in Gorakhpur to Faridabad via Ghazipur on August 2. He was stopped by Shyam Sunder who first threatened him that he would issue a challan of ₹10,000 for not wearing mask as there were five members in his family but later asked for ₹1,000 in his Paytm account. Police said Pandey then transferred ₹1,000 via Paytm app and then made a PCR call