LALITHA By Express News Service BENGALURU: A middle-aged man, claiming to be a reporter for leading English newspapers, has allegedly been extorting money from BDA officials at the head office after threatening to expose them. The individual, who gave his name as Trivikrama, was interrogated by the BDA Task Force on Tuesday evening. A BDA official told TNIE that the individual repeatedly threatened an IT section senior officer for two days. “He claimed to have some documents about the individual on his phone and asked him to pay a lump sum so that the matter could be closed permanently. The officer ignored the individual on the first day (Monday) but when he came to his cabin on the second day and repeated the threat, the officer alerted the Task Force police,” the official said. Since he was roaming inside the campus, he was caught quickly. When news about this ‘journalist’ spread around the office, more tales of extortion came tumbling out, said another official. “He has been roaming around the campus for the past one month and had indulged in similar behaviour with officials in the land acquisition department,” he added. “Fearing he would be exposed, a BDA case worker handed over a good amount to him, the details of which are not known,” the official said. A Task Force police officer said that they interrogated Tri Vikrama, a native of Hosakerahalli, on Tuesday evening and let him go. “Our initial understanding is he seems to be an RTI activist and managed to get some information about an officer in the computer section. He claims the officer manipulated information and he had evidence of it. The said officer has a very good reputation,” said the officer. The officer added that he had not seen Tri Vikrama earlier inside the BDA campus. Asked if an FIR was booked, the officer said the Task Force does not have powers for it. “The Superintendent of Police of the Task Force will take a call on whether an FIR needs to be filed at the Seshadripuram police station,” the officer said.

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