Shopian: Jammu and Kashmir Police have arrested a woman alongside her ally involved in extortion in guise of being close-aide of police in south Kashmir’s Shopian district, officials said on Tuesday.
“Shopian Police in a coordinated and efficient manner have arrested one woman namely Mehbooba Akhtar, wife of Shafkat Mohi-ud-din Kuchay, a resident of Kardar, Kulgam, who was acting as tout and was extorting money from locals in Shopian,” reads a police statement.
The woman, the statement reads, was pretending to be close to police in Shopian and in lieu of getting the persons, who are brought in for questioning under preventive detention by police, released, she extorted huge amounts of money from a few families in Shopian.
She was assisted by another person namely Ghulam Hassain Shah, son of Modh Shaban Shah resident of Behibagh, Kulgam in this fraud, police said.
“In this regard, case FIR No- 158/2023 under relevant sections of law stands registered in Police station Shopian and Investigation has been taken up”, reads the statement, adding, “Based on the information received, both extortionists were called to the Police Station for questioning.”
The accused person, the statement reads, disclosed the whole nexus and modus operandi that they have used to extort money from people.
“The co-accused Ghulam Hussain Shah further disclosed that woman in discussion has extorted a tune of rupees 8.4 lakh from these families over the period of time. Police was able to recover 2.5 lakh rupees from her possession. Further recovery is expected,” the statement said.
SSP Shopian Tanushree has in the meantime said that extortion is a form of blackmail and made it clear to the public that they should not fell prey of any such blackmailer instead they should call at Police and help the police to eradicate all types of crimes from the society and play their roles in making shopian a crime free.
