3 arrested for extortion from men who rented car

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru

The Chandralayout police have arrested three individuals for assaulting and extorting money from young men who had rented a car. The accused, Nitin, Shashank, and Vinod, were taken into custody following a complaint. Last week, five young men rented a car from Vinod to visit Madikeri. Upon returning the vehicle, the group was taken to Vinod’s office in Nagarbhavi, where he allegedly accused them of violating the speed limit, claiming they had driven at 120 km/h instead of the permitted 100 km/h. He demanded a fine of ?1.2 lakh. When the victims asked to see the traffic violation ticket, the accused threatened them with knives and assaulted them.

The victims were taken to a nearby mobile shop, where they were forced to pay ?50,000 via QR code. According to the complaint, after receiving the payment, the accused confiscated the victims’ laptops and dropped them off at their homes in the middle of the night. The young men reported the incident to the Chandralayout police. DCP S Girish confirmed the arrests and stated that further investigation is ongoing.

He added that the students, who hail from West Bengal, had rented the car for travel. After their return, the accused extorted ?60,000 from them, claiming it was for a traffic fine. The remaining amount was demanded before the victims filed a complaint.