5 arrested in Kerala for trying to extort money by threatening to lodge food poisoning case against eatery

At a time when Kerala is seeing a spate of food poisoning incidents, five persons have been arrested from the Malappuram district of the state for trying to extort money from a restaurant owner by threatening to lodge a false complaint of food poisoning after eating from there.

An officer of the Vengara police station told PTI that five people were arrested on Tuesday night following a complaint by the restaurant owner alleging that a group that ate from his establishment demanded Rs 40,000 from him, over the phone, for not filing a case of food poisoning against the eatery.

The five then reduced the amount to Rs 25,000, but the restaurant owner instead of paying the money informed the police and handed over to it a recording of the conversation.

Subsequently, police first arrested the person from whose number the call was made to the restaurant owner, and based on his questioning, four others were also arrested, the officer said.

The officer said that a similar complaint was also received from another eatery in Vengara on Tuesday claiming that they had to shell out around Rs 35,000 to avoid lodging a fake case against them.

In the second case, a different group of people is believed to have extorted the money, but both groups appear to be part of the same gang, police said.

No arrests have been made yet in the second case, the official said and added that the investigation was going on and soon the others who were involved in these cases would be found.