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Varanasi, July 26: As many as 18 persons, including two police constables, were arrested for allegedly extorting truck drivers on the UP-Bihar border in Ballia.
ADG Varanasi zone Piyush Mordia suspended the entires staff of 19 police personnel attached to Narhi police station.
The ADG has ordered a departmental probe against the suspended police personnel.
Korantadih police outpost in-charge, Rajesh Kumar Prabhakar, and the entire staff of this police outpost, including two head constables and six constables, were also suspended.
The ADG said they had received information about a widespread extortion racket by policemen at the Bharauli border under Narahi police station. Five police teams from Varanasi and Azamgarh districts were formed and DIG Azamgarh range Vaibhav Krishna was asked to assist in the raid.
The joint team led by the ADG raided Bharauli around 4am.
During the raid, one constable and 16 persons involved in the racket were caught extorting money from truckers, while three policemen managed to escape, the ADG added.
Following this, the Korantadih outpost was raided, where similar extortion was taking place. One constable was arrested from this location, while one member of his racket managed to escape.
During interrogation, the arrested constable said they used to extort at least Rs 500 from each truck entering UP from Bihar through the Bharauli border & each night, money was extorted from around 1,000 trucks means around Rs 5 lakh was being extorted per night, and after detailing these activities, the share of cops and middlemen in this nexus was distributed.
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