Man, friends extort Rs 6 lakh from the managing director of a company who allegedly subjected techie's girlfriend to sexual harassment when she went for a job interview at his office in Mahalaxmi Layout

Engineer arrested for extortion, kidnapping

The wedding plans of Varun (28), an engineer, who is scheduled to marry on May 24, are in serious doubt following his arrest for kidnapping and extortion.

Varun was arrested following a police complaint by his friends Satyakumar and Balaji, who helped him kidnap Shrinivas Reddy, the managing director of Venkateshwar International Education Society, and extort Rs 6 lakh from him.

The interview
"The friends helped Varun in the crime because Vanaja, the girl he is to marry, had complained to him that she was subjected to sexual harassment by Reddy when she went to his office in Mahalaxmi Layout to be interviewed for a clerical position in December, last year," explained Lokeshwara, police inspector, Upparpeth police station. The friends were not contended with the money they got from Reddy after considerable
bickering.

Roughed up
Varun allegedly planned the kidnapping and he and his friends took Reddy to Hotel Kanishka in Gandhinagar and roughed him up.

Reddy was so terrified that he agreed to give him Rs 3.5 lakh, of which they handed Rs 1 lakh that very day. Before the men let Reddy go, they told him that they expected him to pay up Rs 3.5 lakh more.

In due course, Varun forgot the Rs 3.5 lakh and got busy with his marriage plans. His friends, however, did not forget the money.

They planned to collect the amount from him, and discussed with their other friend Chandrashekhar, who approached Reddy and claimed that he was Vanaja's brother. Chandrashekhar demanded Rs 6 lakhs in cash and Rs 3 lakhs in cheque from Reddy.

Chandrashekhar managed to scare Reddy enough to make him part with Rs 5 lakh.

The entire affair however, got Reddy so frustrated that he filed a complaint against Varun and Chandrashekhar at the Upparpeth police station.

Counter complaint
When Varun learnt of the complaint, he filed a case of sexual harassment against Reddy.

Lokeshwara said, "All this was done solely for the sake of money. We arrested Varun and his friends after we received the complaint. The men were subsequently let out on bail."