Complainant in high-profile extortion case dead

PANIPAT - A jeweller, who had helped in the arrest of a top police officer in an extortion case, died in a Delhi hospital of medical complications, police said Wednesday.

“B.K. Malhotra’s son, Vicky, told us that his father had gone through an abdomen operation a few days back. He said that Malhotra was taking many medicines everyday and he somehow took some wrong medicine on Sunday (June 27) that led to his death,” police officer Bikram Singh said.

Malhotra had provided CCTV footage of the Special Task Force (STF) members, including its chief Ashok Sheoran, trying to extort money from him at his shop here in March.

Sheoran and seven other members of the STF were arrested after Malhotra’s tip-off.

“He was taken to different hospitals in Panipat, Rohtak and Delhi and died at Delhi’s Jaipur Golden hospital late Tuesday evening. Malhotra was also under depression due to the illness. However, we are still waiting for the medical reports,” Singh said.

Curiously enough, the police have termed the death a suicide, even though no suicide note was found, and have registered a case to this effect.

“This is a simply suicide case. But so far we have not found any suicide note,” the officer added.

After the arrest of the policemen, the Haryana government disbanded the STF.

Sheoran and his men are still in jail and have not been granted bail.