Youth held for trying to extort judge of Rs 500

kolkata: A youth—identified as Arnab Acharaya— was arrested from Salt Lake for allegedly trying to extort a Kolkata judge of Rs 500 by posing as an app bike rider.

Around a month back, a Kolkata judge received a call from an unknown number. The caller—identified as Acharya—claimed himself to be an app bike rider. He demanded Rs 500 from the judge telling him that he owes an amount for taking a ride.

Though the judge initially did not take the call seriously, when he started receiving the call repeatedly, he lodged a complaint.

Cops of Hare Street police station tracked down the number and nabbed an app bike rider, who was using the mobile number.

But after arresting the app bike rider, police learnt that he had called Acharya for his pending money.

The app bike rider told the cops that around a month back Acharya had booked a ride using the app and asked the rider to go to multiple locations, promising to pay him Rs 1200.

After completion of the trip, the app bike rider told Acharya that he had only Rs 500 denomination. Acharya took a note from him and went to arrange change.

But, when he did not return after several minutes, the app bike rider called him on the number which Acharya had used for calling the rider.

After hearing his statement, the Special Task Force (STF) was informed for necessary assistance.

During the probe, cops found that Acharya later downloaded a smartphone application using which a caller can hide his original mobile number.

While using the application, a mobile number needs to be mentioned which will be seen on the receiver's mobile screen. For calling the judge, Acharya had used the mobile phone number of the bike rider.

Police obtained Acharya's mobile number from the app bike service provider and started tracking its location. On Saturday night, cops tracked Acharya at a hotel in Salt Lake and arrested him.

Acharya was produced before Bankshall Court on Sunday and has been remanded in police custody till April 9