Man held for demanding R 15 lakh from institute’s director

LUCKNOW: A former employee of the director of a management institute was held on Wednesday night for demanding ` 15 lakh as extortion money from the latter in Vikas Nagar. Police said the accused first posted letters to demand money from the director and threatened him with dire consequences. He sent SMSes to the director when the latter did not respond to the demand.

The complainant, Sunil Kumar Srivastava, is director of Lal Bahadur Institute of Management on Kursi road in Gudamba. The accused, Jagannath Prasad Bharti, was employed as the driver of the director around six months ago.

SS Singh, in-charge of Vikas Nagar police station, said: “We initially thought that the extortion demand was made by some professional criminals but detailed investigation revealed that the former driver was involved in it.”

He said the driver confessed that he was going through a financial crisis and thought of resorting to extortion, which he thought, was an easy way out.

The accused first sent two letters demanding money on March 19 and 23. “The director initially ignored the letters, but got worried when he received an SMS two days ago. The accused mentioned about the director’s children and other family members and threatened to cause them harm,” said Singh.

He said Srivastava then approached the police and lodged an FIR with the Vikas Nagar police. Consequently, Bharti was tracked through electronic surveillance and arrested from his house in Para.