Cyber police in East Champaran arrested two men for posing as officers and extorting ₹1 lakh from a victim in UP, claiming to help with a criminal case.

Cyber police in East Champaran district on Sunday evening arrested two men for allegedly running a cyber fraud racket by posing as policemen and extorting ₹1 lakh from a victim in Uttar Pradesh.

Rajeev Kumar Sinha, additional station house officer of Motihari Cyber Police, said the victim, Ashutosh Kumar Tiwari of Ballia (UP), was duped through repeated WhatsApp calls. The fraudsters posed as police officers and trapped him by claiming they could secure the “safe release” of his brother, who they said had been caught in a criminal case.

“Ashutosh realised he had been cheated only after depositing ₹1 lakh into the bank account provided by them. During the investigation, the account was found to be in the name of one Mahendra Kumar,” additional SHO said.

According to an official statement issued on December 1, 2025, cyber police arrested Mahendra Kumar from his native village, Bara Pareuwa, in Raxaul sub-division, while his accomplice Raja Kumar Soni was arrested from Block Road in Raxaul.

Ghaziabad: Two arrested for killing 42-year-old cab driver

Two people were arrested from Vijay Nagar in Ghaziabad, near the Delhi-Meerut expressway, on Tuesday for the alleged murder of a 42-year-old cab driver last month whose car they wanted to use for kidnapping a minor for ransom, said police officials.

Police identified the prime suspect as 27-year-old Najafgarh resident Govind Kumar and his accomplice as Shani (single name), 21, a resident of Barola. The two are friends and originally from Badaun district in Uttar Pradesh. The victim was Najafgarh local, Hariram Poddar.

They planned the kidnapping of a transporter’s son in Delhi’s Najafgarh but ended up murdering on November 20.

Both Kumar and Shani work as construction workers and had started working about two months ago at a site in Najafgarh near the residence of a transporter, identified as Vipul Kumar Jha.

Ritesh Tripathi, assistant commissioner of police (Vijay Nagar circle), said Kumar roped in Shani in a plan to kidnap Jha’s 11-year-old son. “He thought that the boy’s father had a flourishing business and would part with a huge amount of ransom. For this, they wanted a car to kidnap the child from near his school.”

The two hired an offline cab to Aligarh for ₹3,200. The cab started for Aligarh around 6.30am on November 20.

Midwway during the drive on November 20 afternoon, they asked the victim, Poddar, to take the Delhi-Meerut Expressway (DME) towards Dasna in Ghaziabad, said officials from the Vijay Nagar police station attached to the case’s investigation said. They told Poddar that Kumar’s wife was waiting there and she would accompany them to Aligarh.

“At an isolated spot near Dasna, they overpowered and strangled the driver in the car around 11.30 am,” said an officer linked to case investigation, adding that they then dumped the body below the rear seat and drove back to Najafgarh.

However, their kidnapping plan was foiled because the transporter’s son did not attend the school that day. From Najafgarh, they drove back to Ghaziabad. “In between, they tried to dump the body at three locations but could not find a suitable spot and roamed around,” the officer added. Kumar wanted to extort ₹20 lakh ransom from Jha and had promised ₹4 lakh to Shani.

The ACP said, “The two suspects in the late evening dumped the car, with the body inside, near a high-rise adjacent to the DME in Vijay Nagar.”

Later that night, locals spotted the car and alerted police. “The deceased car owner was identified through the car’s registration number. The autopsy revealed he died of strangulation,” the ACP added.

Officials said that based on CCTV footage, they obtained the suspects’ photos. An informer told them Kumar was a Najafgarh resident.

On December 1, police registered an FIR for murder at Vijay Nagar police station following a complaint from the victim’s family.

Based on information retrieved by scanning CCTV cameras on the expressway and information gathered through surveillance methods, the two suspects were nabbed from near the IPEM College area adjacent to the expressway, said police.

Chembur, Deonar urge CM to clear ‘green lung’

Residents believe they have found a viable solution to the consistently “poor” to “very poor” AQI levels this year: converting a 45-acre, defunct BSNL telecom factory site in Deonar into an urban forest

Intro: Launch petition seeking 45-acre plot’s conversion into an urban forest amid worsening air pollution

MUMBAI: Residents of Chembur, one of Mumbai’s most-polluted neighbourhoods, are holding their breath as they wait to see whether civic and government authorities will back their proposal for a new green lung.

Chembur and neighbouring Deonar have consistently recorded “poor” to “very poor” AQI levels this year. Both these eastern suburbs house factories, various industries including the RCF refinery complex, and the Deonar garbage dumping yard.

Now residents believe they have found a viable solution: converting a 45-acre, defunct BSNL telecom factory site in Deonar into an urban forest.

“The central suburbs of Mumbai are in dire need of such green spaces. Converting this defunct land into a tree-filled park would act as a vital tool in combating urban pollution,” reads a public petition that drew 4,600 signatures in just six days.

The petition, which they have submitted to the chief minister, notes that the 45-acre plot in focus is situated in a critically polluted belt. It argues that the concentration of industrial activity makes the creation of a large green buffer essential for public health.

The petition was initiated by Chembur resident Dr Viswanath Pilla, who said the telecom factory shut a long time ago. “It’s been largely abandoned for the last six years. There’s just one building on the property and residents use the land to take a morning walk.”

What prompted him to launch the petition? “One day, after a walk, I felt breathless due to the pollution. That’s when I decided we had to act. We have reached out to the chief minister,” said Pilla, adding that the neighbourhood is in dire need of a green space.

Their petition reads, “The local government has the opportunity to demonstrate its commitment to environmental health and community welfare by supporting the repurposing of the BSNL site into a green lung.”

Pilla said, “Pollutants and particulate matter are constantly being released into the air. Nobody follows the rules, not the refineries, not construction sites, not the RMC plants.”

Rajkumar Sharma, another Chembur resident, said, “Chembur is getting worse. You cannot stop the work at the dumping ground or the metro. The alternative is to create a natural habitat, where we can breathe.”

Another resident mentioned that a plot reserved for a green space in the Development Plan is now being developed. “There were trees on the land as recently as October, but most of them have been axed. With those trees gone, air quality suffers,” he pointed out.

Locals added that despite weeks of high AQI, they have not seen road sweepers or dust-suppression machines at work, or monitors at construction sites. Garbage burning at Deonar continues, further worsening air quality, they said.

A senior civic official said the BSNL telecom factory plot does not fall under the jurisdiction of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). “This land falls under the central government. If citizens approach us with a representation, we will forward it to the department concerned. Citizens can pursue the matter through the state government,” the official said. “All complaints relating to pollution or environmental issues raised by citizens are being looked into.”