The JDU MLA from Morwa in Samastipur, Vidyasagar Singh Nishad, received an extortion demand of Rs 1 crore on his cellphone on Saturday morning. The legislator informed the Samastipur superintendent of police (SP) and the Darbhanga inspector-general of police (IG) that the caller told him to abide by the diktat or face elimination.
MLA Nishad told The Telegraph: "I received three consecutive messages on Saturday morning on my cellphone in which the sender has demanded Rs 1 crore. It was written that if I failed to comply with the diktat, they would eliminate me and my family members with bombs."
Nishad, who is also the JDU national secretary, said the sender of the message had asked him to come with the amount at Jhajha valley on the Bihar-Jharkhand border. He also asked the MLA to quit politics.
Nishad immediately informed Darbhanga IG Umashankar Sudhanshu, Samastipur SP Nawal Kishore Singh and other senior officers about the SMSes.
Samastipur SP Singh said: "Yes, we have received the information of the MLA getting extortion messages. An FIR has been filed. We have formed a team and trying to nab the person."
The cops have put the cellphone number under surveillance to ascertain the identity of criminal/s. SP Singh confirmed that they were trying to trace the location of the mobile phone. He said: "So far, the investigation carried out by us has revealed that the SIM card was issued from Bihar. He, however, refused to divulge more details, saying it could hamper the probe.
Nishad was in the news recently after his son Lakhan Nishad was arrested with 12 bottles of foreign made liquor from his in-law's house in Jakkanpur locality in the state capital last November.
However, this was not an isolated case of extortion demand from high-profile people.
Earlier, RJD MLA Nand Kumar Rai had also received an extortion call of Rs 10 lakh in June 2016. Similarly, a deputy inspector-general of police (Kosi range) Chandrika Rai had received an extortion call of Rs 20 lakh on June 27, 2016. In another incident, a BJP MLA from Bakhtiyarpur Ranvijay Singh had lodged an FIR accusing a sarpanch Sadabriksh Kumar of firing on him from his pistol when he refused to meet his extortion demand last year.
