Partners in Ghaziabad allege extortion

Vivek Singhal, Proprietor of Ghaziabad-based Computer Care logged a police
complaint against Mastram Bhati, who has been accused for harassing dealers in
the region for extortion. Dealers at Shiva Towers, Ghaziabad had allegedly been
receiving extortion calls for the past few weeks from Bhati who they say enjoys
political patronage.

The local dealers decided to get together with Uttar Pradesh Vyapar Udyog
Mandal and Ghaziabad Computer Associ­ation. Together they approached the police
and demanded that Bhati be arrested so that they get respite from the daily
extortions. They also met Deepak Rattan, SSP, Ghaziabad, and Vijay Bhushan,
SP-City, Ghaziabad. Following that, Singhal logged

a complaint with the Kotwali, GP Road Police Station, Ghaziabad.

“Bhati has been arrested but if he gets out on bail he will resume extortion
and might even want to kill me. His companions outside jail have been giving me
extortion calls.”

Elaborating on the series of incidents, Singhal mentioned, “One day this man
came to our shop and asked for extortion. Since most of the shopkeepers were
afraid of him no one was willing to protest. However, we denied him the
extortion after which his companions set fire to two of our shops on the eve of
July 3. Hence we resolved to take action and lodged a complaint against him.”

The fire has caused severe damage to the products in his shops and Singhal
has suffered a loss of around Rs 1 to 1.5 lakh. The dealer however, has claimed
insurance amount for the same. But the entire incident has slowed down his
business.

On the other hand as a precautionary measure the police have placed two
guards at the dealer's shop so that Bhati's companions do not harass him any
more.