Four persons who were extorting money from businessmen in the guise of members of CPI (ML) and Rythu Coolie Sangam were arrested by Chaitanyapuri police here on Thursday.
The accused have been identified as 45-year-old Kodumuri Srinivas alias M. Janardhan Reddy, a daily finance business from Vijayawada who earlier worked in CPI-ML, 42-year-old Allutla Uppalaiah alias Upender, a painter from Kothapet who worked in PDSU and CPI-ML, 40-year-old Thatikayala Surender alias Suryam, a daily wager from Dilawarpur Village in Motakonduru Mandal of Yadadri, who earlier worked as PDSU Nalgonda District Committee member and 21-year-old Allutla Ganesh, an auto driver from Epuru Village in Athmakuru Mandal of Suryapet district. One Venkanna is still at large.
They were nabbed by the police at Mohannagar crossroads, Kothapet who also seized a car, a laptop, eight mobile phones, 11 SIM cards, two CPI ML party visiting cards (which were on the name of Srinivas and Uppalaiah), pocket diary and some papers having details of business persons.
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“Now in order to earn easy money, the accused formed into a group hatched a plan to extort money from wealthy people and businessmen. They used to make calls to the business people and demand money in the name of Party fund for CPI-ML and Rythu Coolie Sangam (RCS),” police said. The gang extorted money from many people in 2019 and they couldn’t do their activities in the year 2020 due to COVID-19. “Once again they contacted each other over the phone to continue their criminal activity,” they said.