Lawyer, aides held for posing as NGO officials to extort liquor vends

New Delhi: A 27-year-old lawyer and his five other aides were arrested by the Delhi Police for allegedly threatening wine shop owners in the city and extorting money from them by posing as officials of a reputed NGO and accusing them of selling liquor to minors.

One of the accused persons, Shashank Kumar, who works as a lawyer, duped liquor shop owners, along with the co-accused persons, by pretending to be the legal advisor of NGO International Human Rights Organisation (IHRO), police said.

According to police, the incident came to the fore when a person had approached them and claimed that some persons had come to a wine shop in South Park Mall in South Delhi's Saket and were threatening the employees there, allegedly pretending to be from the NGO IHRO.

The accused persons allegedly demanded money from the shop's manager on the pretext that they were selling liquor to minors and claimed that their liquor license will be cancelled if their demands are not met, police further said.

On receiving this information, a police team rushed to the spot and allegedly found that the shutter of the shop was closed and one car was parked in front of the shop with a name plate affixed on it, that read "National Secretary (Legal Cell) International Human Rights Organisation".

"Following this, when the shutter of the shop was opened, five persons were present inside, including two armed men who claimed to be Personal Security Officers (PSOs) of the officer of IHRO," DCP (South) Atul Kumar Thakur said.

In his complaint to police, manager Naresh claimed that one of the accused persons posed as a decoy customer, who was a 21-year-old, in order to allegedly threaten them of breaking several laws and following which they were told to pay Rs. 2 lakhs in return, the DCP said.

It was further revealed that the persons had threatened employees of another shop in Saidulajab through a similar modus operandi, police said.