A Patna City-based businessman accused police of refusing to lodge an FIR twice despite receiving threat calls and letters demanding Rs 5 lakh as one-time ransom and Rs 10,000 as monthly extortion.

Rajkishore Chaurasia (45) runs a computer training centre in Patna City since 1993. His complaint: Someone is demanding extortion money over the phone and through letters for the past two months and the police are not lodging an FIR.

Chaurasia, the owner of Career Computer Centre, received a letter on June 13. Opening it, he got the shock of his life. The author of the letter demanded Rs 5 lakh from him. Now, after months, during which he got two more threatening calls on his cellphone this week, the police said they first needed to verify if someone was playing a prank.

Chaurasia said he had written at least three applications to the police but has not received any acknowledgement receipt regarding the case.

“The June 13 letter was sent by someone who called himself Deshu Bhai of some Khallas Gang. The letter stated that I needed to pay an extortion of Rs 5 lakh and a monthly extortion of Rs 10,000. The letter had every detail of my two sons, the routes which they take to school. It stated that they would kill my sons and my younger brother if I don’t cough up the money. I was terrified,” Chaurasia said.

“On June 16, I went to meet deputy superintendent of police (Patna City) Sushil Kumar, who asked me to visit Chowk police station. I went to meet the station house officer and gave him the application but he didn’t give me an acknowledgement receipt stating they would look into the matter. I asked them again to give me a receiving but they denied. Now, after such threats, if something happens to my children, the police can easily say that I never approached them because I don’t have any receipt from the cops,” he added.

Chaurasia lives in the Chowk Shikarpur Nala area and runs the computer centre from the ground floor of the same building. His sons study at St Dominic Savio School and Baldwin Academy respectively. July was comparatively calm but August was disturbing again. “On August 24, I got a call at around 7.23pm from 08804618471. The caller asked me whether I had arranged for the money or not? On saying no, he hurled the same threat at me. The next morning, I rushed to the police station with another application. Again no receipt was given to me,”

“The extortionist called again on August 27 and asked the same. This time, I said the money has been arranged. The caller said he would inform me the location where I would have to bring the money. He said he would call again on August 29. Since the police did not give me any receipt for my earlier applications, I got in touch with one of my relatives who knows Suresh Choudhary (SP-Railways),” the trader added.

However, his ordeal did not end here.

“Choudhary asked me to visit the police station on Wednesday and refer his name to the SHO. On telling him, the SHO denied the receipt again and asked me to come in the evening. I don’t understand why the SHO is not giving me a receipt?” Chaurasia asked.

When contacted, Pushkar Kumar, the station house officer of Chowk, said: “Before lodging the FIR, we need to know if someone is playing a prank on him. The caller could be a student at the computer training centre. We suspect this is a possibility. The mobile tower locations show that the calls are coming from Lakhisarai. Once we are sure it is not a prank, an FIR would be lodged,” the officer said.