Youth held in Howrah for extorting money to grant admission

Kolkata: A youth was arrested on Friday morning on charges of extorting money, after assuring help regarding admission in a college at Bally in Howrah. Sources said that the arrested youth had initially claimed himself to be a cousin of a CPI(M) leader in the area. Police said the youth, Jeet Ganguly, was caught red-handed when he was taking money from a student seeking admission at Lal Baba College in Bally. Police have also got hold of an audio recording of the conversation between the arrested youth and the student. A senior police officer said that Jeet had assured help to the student to get admission in the college and asked him to give Rs 15,000. The amount was reduced to Rs 8,000 when the student pleaded his inability to give Rs 15,000. Finally, the student agreed to give Rs 5,000. He had given Rs 1,000 earlier to Jeet, who was arrested by policemen in plainclothes when receiving the remaining Rs 4,000 in cash at Bally Ghat station. It has been learnt that Jeet is a former student of the college. Sanjay Kumar, principal of the college, said: "Jeet doesn't have any connection with the college." The police suspect that Jeet might have taken money from some more students after assuring help to arrange admission in the college.