Prison no bar, killer turns extortionist in Tihar

Amit Shukla, the prime accused in murder case of journalist Soumya Vishwanathan and IT firm employee Jigisha Ghosh, has been operating an extortion racket from inside the prison with the help of a contractual employee at Tihar Jail.

On Tuesday, one Arun Kumar, 27, working as a compounder at Tihar jail was arrested. He was working on the directions of Shukla, who was arrested in 2009 and was directing Kumar from jail. According to police, Shukla had called a businessman identified as Rajender Saraf and asked him to give Rs 50,000. Shukla threatened him of implicating him in a criminal case, if he failed to pay the money. On late Friday night, Saraf paid the extortion money but before that, he informed police about the incident. On the basis of that, cops laid a trap and apprehended Kumar red-handed from Mukund Vihar.

‘During interrogation, Kumar revealed that he met Shukla in jail. After that, Kumar arranged a mobile phone along with a SIM card for Shukla. The phone was used to make extortion calls to a few targeted persons,’ a senior police official said.

Shukla was involved in the brutal murder of television journalist Soumya Vishwanathan, who was shot dead in south Delhi in March 2009. In the same year, Shukla, along with his associates, had kidnapped 28-year-old Jigisha Ghosh from outside her residence and later dumped her body at Surajkund in Faridabad. Soon both cases were cracked by Delhi police.