Munna Bajrangi, 3 others let off in bizman's extortion case

In a severe jolt to city police's Special Cell, a Delhi court today acquitted gangster Munna Bajrangi of the charges of threatening a businessman here to extort money from him.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Vinod Yadav let off Bajrangi, facing trials in several cases including the one for killing an UP MLA in 2005, and his three alleged accomplices, saying the prosecution failed to prove its case against them.

"What to talk of any visible sign of physical act, there has been no material on record that even a threat, much less threat for extortion, was given to the businessman by any of the accused persons," Yadav said while acquitting Bajrangi and co-accused Mahendra Ayare, Miraz Ahmed and Iftikar Ahmed.

Another co-accused in the case, Rizwan Ahmed, has been declared proclaimed offender in the case.

The court said the Special Cell had failed to prove that the phone numbers from which extortion calls were allegedly made to city businessman Ashok Tebriwal belonged to or were used by Bajrangi or his men.

It also said Tebriwal had turned hostile and though he admitted having received a call from an unknown number in September 2009, he stated the caller neither made any ransom call or threatened him.

The Special Cell had arrested Bajrangi and others from Mumbai after intercepting a conversation between Khan and Ahmed, which, it said, revealed a conspiracy to extort money from Tebriwal. It claimed that callers were the associates of Bajrangi and had called up Tebriwal to demand Rs 1 crore.