Deputy mayor among seven booked for extortion bid

Seven persons, including Amravati deputy mayor Sheikh Jafar, have been booked for allegedly trying to extort Rs 5 crore from a city-based property broker, police said here today.
On a complaint of the property broker Prashant Hemant Kumar Vyas, a case has been registered yesterday against the deputy mayor Jafar and six other accused- Hemant Pravinchand Khatri, Jayant Pravinchand Khatri, Pravin Tarachand Khatri, Asif, Deva and Afzal Chaudhary, police said.
Afzal Chaudhary is the city unit chief of Samajwadi Party.
According to the complaint, the accused had last week called the property broker Vyas to Jafar's house in Namuna locality here and allegedly pressurised him to transfer a property in the name of the Khatris, with whom he has a dispute which is sub judice, police said.

They also tried to extort Rs 5.28 cr from him, Vyas alleged.
One of the accused Asif has been arrested on Friday.
Police yesterday raided Jafar's residence but are yet to trace him, they said.
Jafar had earlier been externed by the police in connection with several criminal cases against him.