Two arrested for blackmailing traffic policemen

New Delhi: Two persons were arrested for allegedly making videos of police personnel while taking challan money in east Delhi’s Preet Vihar, the police said today.
Yesterday, the police were informed by traffic police personnel posted at Mandawali Circle claiming that a person tried to extort money from them by making a video.
Subsequently, two men identified as Shahrukh Abbas (24) and Ranjeet Mourya (33) were arrested.
During interrogation, they told police that they would drive a commercial vehicle in No Entry Zone or No Parking Zone, which would be a violation of traffic rules and merit a fine, said Omvir Singh, Deputy Commissioner of Police (East).
When they would be issued a challan, they would make a video of the process. Later, they would tamper with the video and the portion in which they are seen paying challan is modified and shown as if they were paying a bribe, said the officer.
They would then return to the traffic police personnel and threaten to circulate the video to a news channel or vigilance office, said the DCP.
It was found that there is a gang of six-seven members involved in such crimes.
In some cases, they would prolong the conversation with the policeman and agree for a settlement and would record the video of them paying the bribe.
If the offer of a bribe did not work, they would make a video and tamper with it to show the police personnel in a bad light, he said.
Police have seized helmets fixed with cameras, button cameras, mini digital video recorders, wires, CDs etc, from the accused.
It is also being probed whether the accused had duped civic agency employees in a similar way, police added.
PTI