A habitual blackmailer, who intended to earn money by making false accusations of adulterated food and food having dangerous substances being served in railway stations, was arrested by Railway Protection Force (RPF) of Guntakal division on Tuesday.
The accused, Sunder Pal, tried to cheat railway officials by saying that he found a lizard in the vegetable biryani served at a food stall of the railway station. He claimed to have fallen sick by having that ‘poisonous’ food and was admitted to the railway hospital there, RPF said.
However, while investigating, senior railway officials suspected that something was amiss. They found out that a similar incident was reported from Jabalpur railway station, where a man complained about lizard found in a plate of samosa there. Later, officials realised that it was the same person, Pal.
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Another complaint about a blade found in a plate of idly served at Miraj railway station of Pune division also came to their notice and this too, turned out to be a complaint by Pal. In both cases, he was said to have threatened stall owners with complaints.
The railway officials laid a trap with the help of a stall owner and offered bribe to the accused for not filing a complaint against the railways. When he accepted the money from the stall owner to withdraw the complaint, he was caught, Chief Public Relations Officer Ch. Rakesh said.