27-year-old army jawan held for extortion in Vizianagaram

Vizianagaram: A 27-year-old army jawan was held for trying to extort Rs 5 crore from a gold merchant in Parvathipuram in Vizianagaram district.

Hailing from Bantuvanivalasa under Parvathipuram mandal in the district, the army soldier Ch Rajeswara Rao posing as Maoist commander of Jharkhand state, made an extortion call on March 6 demanding Rs 5 crore from a gold merchant Indupuru China Gumpaswami alias Babu in Parvathipuram.

Speaking to media on Sunday, SP B Raja Kumari said the gold merchant Babu had received two phones calls from one unidentified person threatening him with dire consequences and demanding to pay Rs 5 crore. The caller identified himself as top Maoist leader of Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Jharkhand, she said Babu after receiving the phone call immediately lodged a complaint with Parvathipuram Town police on March 6.

In his complaint, Babu stated that some unidentified assailants pelted stones at his house and broken the window panes on March 5.

SP Raja Kumari said they formed a special team to identify and nab the accused. The special team came to conclusion that someone has opened fire at the house of Babu with a country-made weapon and the accused used three bullets at the house. When the victim Babu expressed his inability to pay Rs 5 crore, the accused Rao asked him to handover Rs 1.5 crore at Vikrampuram area on Sunday. Acting on tip-off of Babu, the police arrested the accused on Sunday when the victim visited the spot to handover the cash.

SP said that accused Rajeswara Rao, an employee with Indian Army, came to his hometown and he incurred huge losses in land deals. In order to recover from the losses, inspired by the series of Mirzapur gangster deals, Rao also wanted to earn easy money and he procured a country-made weapon from border state.

The police recovered one-country made weapon, four live bullets, phones and one two-wheeler from the accused.