Cops extorting money from us in BSP man murder case: UP builders to SP MLA

ALIGARH: Dharmendra Chaudhury, who had been declared BSP candidate from Atrauli for the 2017 assembly elections, was shot dead on January 10 this year. That murder has set off a controversy whose fires the Samajwadi Party government in Uttar Pradesh may find hard to douse.
On Friday, after having received what he claimed dozens of letters and representations from harried builders in the state, Samajwadi Party MLA from Charra, Rakesh Singh, said the murder of Chaudhury, a builder and member of the Aligarh Builders and Colonizers Association, is being milked by Aligarh Police, who have so far extorted at least Rs 15 crore by threatening other builders that cases of conspiracy would be slapped against them if they did not cough up the “vasooli”.
Chaudhury was shot dead at Russel Ganj by seven men, all as yet unidentified. Police have arrested some men suspected to have been involved in the crime.
Singh said, “This murder has turned out a gift for the police. I have got letters from the Aligarh Builders’ Association and some independent businessmen, in which they have said that the police would visit and ask them for sums like Rs 5 lakh or Rs 10 lakh. Blackmailing them, the police would say, ‘Give us the money or we will make the shooters we have nabbed take your name in the murder case’. The people I am talking about are crorepati businessmen involved in hardware, steel, etc. I have one letter from Aligarh Builders and Colonizers Association. The complaints started coming to me in the last week of January. I did what I was expected to do — I pursued the case with chief minister Akhilesh Yadav. He gave me directions that the matter would be handed over to IG Meerut. The order was not obeyed the first time; I pursued it, and it has since been handed over to the IG Meerut.”
On his part, IG (Meerut Zone) Alok Sharma told TOI, “I have not received any direction regarding this so far.” Aligarh SP (crime) Pankaj Pandey added, “Some people mounted pressure on us to release the shooters caught in this case. When we did not do that, they blamed us saying we nabbed the wrong people. Now they say we are taking money. The problem is that some people are worried that after we caught the shooters, we will close in on others involved in the murder. These allegations are baseless.”
A builder in the city, also a member of the builders’ association, told TOI on condition of anonymity, “More than 15 builders were approached by Aligarh police. Each time, they have sought money and threatened us with charges of conspiracy. We were troubled and had a meeting to seek out a course of action. That is when we thought of approaching some politicians.”