Ghaziabad/Raipur, Oct 27 (PTI) Senior journalist VinodVerma was arrested by the Chhattisgarh Police from hisGhaziabad residence at 3.30 am today on charges of blackmailand extortion, police said.
About 500 porn CDs, Rs 2 lakh in cash, a pen drive, alaptop and a diary were seized from the journalist'sresidence, said Raipur District Superintendent of PoliceSanjeev Shukla.
Verma, who earlier worked with BBC Hindi service and AmarUjala, claimed that the Chhattisgarh Police was not happy withhim because he had a "sex CD of a Chhattisgarh minister".
Asked to comment on accusations that he was making CDs,Verma told journalists while being taken from the IndirapuramPolice Station to court, "just pen drive... nothing else. Ihave nothing to with CDs. CD is in the public domain."Verma was picked from Mahagun Mansion Apartments inIndirapuram, on the outskirts of the national capital, by ateam of the Chhattisgarh Police with the help of the GhaziabadPolice, Senior Superintendent of Police (Ghaziabad) H N Singhsaid.
According to him, a case of blackmail and extortion hasbeen registered against the scribe at Pandri police station inRaipur district of Chhattisgarh.
Raipur DSP Shukla added that Verma has been booked underthe Information Technology (IT) Act.
The complainant, he said, was a man named Prakash Bajaj.
"He had lodged a complaint at the Pandri police stationthat he was being harassed over phone by an unidentifiedcaller who told him that he had a CD of his master," Shuklatold PTI.
Bajaj had told police that the caller threatened todistribute the CD if he was not given what he asked for,Shukla said.
He said search teams were sent to Delhi to trace thescribe.
"During the probe, the police came to know about a shopwhere the CD in question was copied. The shopkeeper told thepolice that one Vinod Verma had got 1,000 copies made of theCD," Shukla said.
They then contacted their Ghaziabad counterparts andarrested the scribe from his house, and recovered the CDs andother material, he said.
As news of the arrest spread, many senior journalistsfrom the electronic and print media gathered outside theGhaziabad police station.
AAP leader and former journalist Ashutosh termed thedevelopment an "attack on the press".
In a tweet tagging the Uttar Pradesh Police, thejournalist-turned-politician said Verma was arrested in a"mysterious" way and that the move amounted to attack on pressfreedom. PTI CORR/SNG SRYMIN.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.