Maha: One held for extorting Rs 2.75 lakh from lecturer in Latur

A man was arrested for extorting Rs 2.75 lakh from a lecturer of a junior college in Maharashtra’s Latur district, police said on Thursday.

The police on Wednesday apprehended Kiran Patil (37), a resident of Ambewadi village in Nilanga tehsil, while accepting the extortion amount, and a hunt is on for three other accused in the case, an official said.

According to the police, the complainant has claimed that his junior college was evaluated for a grant in 2021-22 and the copy of the evaluation was taken by the activists of Loknayak Sanghatna through an RTI application. The activists allegedly threatened the complainant that his college evaluation file was wrong and they won’t allow officials to sanction the grant, the official said.

The accused Bhau alias Mahadu Rasal, Kiran Patil, Sarfraj Maniyar, and Muktar Shaikh allegedly harassed him for eight months and took Rs 80,000 from him a month ago, he said.

A case has been registered at Gandhi Chowk against the accused under sections 384 (extortion), 506 (criminal intimidation), and other relevant provisions of the IPC, the official added.