Bhubaneswar: The Uttar Pradesh Police are on the hunt for a journalist of a news web portal in the Odisha capital for allegedly collecting extortion money from different business establishments by opening a fake e-mail account in the name of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
While UP Police has refused to divulge the name of the scribe, sources said that the latter resides on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar.
The scribe, before publishing the news on his own news portal, makes a deal with big business establishments to collect money from them. If any establishment does not agree to the deal, he publishes the news against them. With the extortion money, he has constructed a three-storey building. He has collected about Rs 1.5 crore in the last six months, the sources added.
The UP Police have also come to know that the wife of the scribe was working as a news anchor in a private channel earlier.
The sources further said that the absconding scribe had opened a fake e-mail account of Yogi Adityanath in June this year. Through the mail account, he used to ask the authorities of the central PSUs in Odisha to release advertisements for his web portal on the recommendation of the former.
The incident came to light after the authorities of a central PSU, suspecting foul play, had contacted the office of the UP Chief Minister which clarified that there is no such recommendation by the Chief Minister.
On the basis of a complaint by the central PSU, the UP Police took up the matter and formed a special task force to arrest the scribe.
Later, the task force arrived in Odisha and conducted a series of raids in different areas with the police.
Although the task force and the Commissionerate Police have raided the house of the scribe in Bhubaneswar, they are yet to trace his whereabouts.
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