The extortionist told police that he had read about the officer Anita Yadav facing corruption charges and decided to extort money from her by promising her a clean chit in investigation

New Delhi, March 10

Haryana cadre IAS officer Anita Yadav, who is getting investigated by Haryana Anti-Corruption Bureau lodged a police complaint in Gurgaon alleging she had received extortion calls from a person. The Gurugram Police have arrested the extortionist in the case. 

The accused has been identified as Rishi Sharma, a resident of Udaipur in Rajasthan, who does insurance of vehicles.

In the FIR, the IAS officer, Anita Yadav, had said that on March 3, she received a call from a man, identifying himself as Rishi, who asked her to make a payment of Rs 5 crore “to get her name cleared from a matter which is currently under consideration of Anti-Corruption Bureau Haryana”.

During questioning, he confessed he had read online about the ACB probing the involvement of IAS officer Anita Yadav and another official in a case and decided to extort money from her. He got Yadav’s contact online and on March 3 around 9 pm, he made a WhatsApp call to her and offered to get her a clean chit from the probe by ACB in exchange for money. 

In the recordings shared by the complainant, the accused is heard mentioning ‘five’ when asked about the money. 

The police registered an FIR against the accused under sections 385 (putting person in fear of injury in order to commit extortion) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code.

Last week, the Haryana government had granted permission to the state’s Anti-Corruption Bureau to investigate the role of a few IAS officers, including the complainant, and some government officials in connection with a scam pertaining to alleged irregularities in the allotment of development works in Faridabad’s municipal corporation.