CBI to probe UP gang using SC/ST Act for blackmailing | India News

PRAYAGRAJ: The Allahabad high court directed CBI on Thursday to probe allegations that a gang in Prayagraj has been filing bogus cases of rape and other crime under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act against “innocent” people and blackmailing them to pay up to withdraw the false complaints.
The gang has been allegedly filing frivolous FIRs against high court and Prayagraj district court lawyers representing the accused people in the court.
The HC said this is serious misuse of the law meant to protect the SC/ST communities. As many as 51 such doubtful cases were listed before the court on Thursday.
Hearing a petition filed by an alleged rape survivor, Justice Gautam Chowdhary ordered that no arrests be made either of the accused or any other aggrieved person in such cases till CBI files its preliminary inquiry report.
The order followed a submission by the counsel for the accused that false and frivolous FIRs have been lodged against innocent people to extract money during investigation by telling them that the complaint would be dropped if they pay up a certain amount.
If the accused refuse to pay, the gang threatens their lawyers to stay off the case or face similar charges under the SC/ST law. Several lawyers of Prayagraj district have allegedly fallen victim to the gang.
The court fixed October 20 as the next date of hearing.