SIT formed to probe extortion calls to UP BJP legislators

Lucknow, May 23 (IANS) The Uttar Pradesh Police on Wednesday constituted a three member Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe alleged threat calls and extortion demands received by 14 ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislators.

Additional Director General of Police Anand Kumar said the team has been assigned the task of cracking this sensitive case. He also expressed hope that the team would be able to soon decipher who are the people behind such WhatsApp messages and calls to the legislators.

Between Monday and Tuesday this week as many as 14 BJP legislators have been sent WhatsApp messages seeking money to the tune of Rs 10 lakh from each or else their family members would be eliminated.

Officials privy to the investigation said similar language had been used by the threat makers in all the 14 cases.

An official said most numbers from which the threats were made were "virtual numbers" and the virtual private networks have also been apparently used where the proxy servers ensure that the IP addresses are masked.

Head of SIT Amitabh Yash told IANS that the team was looking at all possibilities.

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