21-yr-old tries to extort money from CPWD officials

He’s just 21 but he bluffed some officials of the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) into believing that he was a CBI officer. But before he could extort money from them, a real CBI officer called his bluff and had him arrested.

Syed Mohammad Abbas, a resident of Anepalya, wanted to make a quick buck after his family suffered losses in their gemstone and pearl business. On YouTube, he watched a video of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) raiding the house of a CPWD official and seizing a huge amount of illegal wealth and valuables, the police said.

Abbas got the idea of becoming rich overnight. He started collating information about officials in the CPWD and the CBI. A few days ago, he made phone calls to some CPWD officials, impersonating senior CBI officers. He said he had “files” on them that would “expose” them. He also said he was going to investigate them on allegations of corruption. But if they paid him up, he would keep quiet.

The CPWD officials, however, smelled something fishy and cross-checked with the CBI. It turned out that someone was playing a trick on them. A CBI inspector then lodged a complaint at the Ashok Nagar police station. Checking Abbas’s call records, the police started tracking him and later picked him up.

A senior police officer, who is part of the investigation, said Abbas had spilled the beans. He had also recorded the phone calls he made to CPWD officials. The police have seized his mobile phone.