A 28-year-old man was allegedly held for hooliganism at Luharli Toll Plaza on Dadri-Bulandshahr Highway. Police said the accused allegedly used to take over the toll plaza in order to extort money from truck drivers at night. The accused has been booked after the toll plaza officials filed a complaint against him a few days ago.
The accused was identified as Vipin Kumar, a resident of Luharli village in Dadri, where he lived with his family. He never did any job and allegedly extorted ₹345 to ₹530 per vehicle, said the police.
Introduced as local
According to Bajrang Saini, the manager of the toll plaza, the accused has been extorting money from the toll plaza for the last one month, “He introduced himself as a local. Earlier, he said that it was his vehicles and that is why we let them pass as per our norms for local residents. Later, we got to know from our sources that he is not a transporter and has been extorting money. So we tried sending him away, but he threatened us. That is when I sought legal support to get rid of him,” said Mr. Saini.
Threatened employees
“The manager of the toll plaza informed the police that a man, who is a local, allegedly used to take over the toll plaza at night. He threatened the employees and allegedly handled the boom barrier himself in order to extort the toll tax from truck drivers. Later, we tracked him down through our informers and arrested him on Saturday evening from his residence,” said Station House officer of Dadri Ram Sen Singh.
The SHO said the accused was booked under Section 384 (extortion) of the Indian Penal Code. “The accused never had a criminal background but he has revealed connections with criminals on whose backing he was threatening the employees at the toll plaza. He was sent to jail after being produced at the court on Monday,” Mr. Singh added.
