Journalist arrested In extortion case, later acquitted

Eight years later, court acquits Economic Times journalist arrested for extortion

(This article has been modified from its original to reflect subsequent developments. For details, please scroll down to end of article)

The crime branch of the Mumbai Police yesterday arrested a senior research journalist of The Economic Times and a former Satyam Infoways Ltd (Sify) executive in an extortion case.

A police statement today said Rishi Paman Chopra, deputy manager (research), The Economic Times, and his friend, Thomas Joseph Priju, who was channel manager at Sify, were arrested yesterday in a south Mumbai hotel while accepting Rs 7 lakh as extortion money from a businessman, Bhaskar Das, brand director for The Economic Times, said in a statement. 

 

(Subsequently, the court trials were completed in 2011, in which they were charged with extortion under Section 384 read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code. On March 1, 2011, the court of additional chief metropolitan magistrate, Mumbai, issued an order acquitting both the accused under Section 248 (1) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, as they were found not guilty.)