Thane: Another complaint has been registered against three Right To Information (RTI) activists for allegedly demanding money from a builder to under-report illegalities in their project. A complaint has been registered against sitting BJP corporator’s son Rajkumar Yadav, former NCP corporator Sudhir Barge and Pradeep Patil for allegedly demanding Rs. 10 lakh from Sheth builder.“The builder has complaint that the trio had initially demanded Rs. 10 lakh against revealing the illegalities that they had come across in the RTIs they had filed against the builder. The trio then settled for Rs. 5 lakh which was paid to them. But later they demanded another Rs. 3 crore and suggested the builder to give a flat against it instead of taking money,” said Pradeep Sharma, senior inspector at anti-extortion cell, crime branch.The police stated that the accused used to not directly interact with the builders and used middle men to do their work.“The trio used to take help of middle men to demand money and do settlements, whom we are now trying to search,” added Sharma. The accused who were arrested in October are currently under judicial custody. The modus operandi of the accused was that they sued to file an RTI with the civic authorities on the projects of the builders and used that to extort money from the builders. — Shrutika Sukhi

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