UP: Suspended Mahoba SP booked for extortion, his assets under lens

They have been booked under sections of the IPC and Prevention of Corruption Act.

According to police, Nitish Pandey, who owns trucks involved in transport of quarried stones in Bundelkhand region, has alleged that despite all the documents, his drivers were harassed by police in Charkhari and Kharela areas of Mahoba. If money was not paid to policemen, they used to challan the vehicle and lodge FIRs against the truck owner, Pandey alleged.

“Pandey also alleged that his company’s project manager, Amit Tiwari, was called by Patidar (then SP of Mahoba) at his residence where the officer asked him to pay him Rs 2 lakh every month,” the FIR stated. According to Pandey, the then SHOs Raju Singh and Rakesh Kumar Saroj had advised him to meet Patidar.

Additional Superintendent of Police (Mahoba) Veerendra Kumar said that both Raju Singh and Rakesh Kumar Saroj have been suspended. Constable Raj Kumar Kashyap, who was posted at Kotwali police station, has also been suspended, he added.

Patidar was suspended after a 44-year-old local businessman, Indra Kant Tripath who had accused him of corruption and intimidation in a video, was attacked by unidentified assailants in Mahoba. However, while suspending Patidar, the government did not mention the allegations levelled by Tripathi and said that that the officer had been extorting money from vehicles engaged in transporting ballast.