Guwahati: It seems for some people starting news portals have become a medium to make easy money through illegal means. With the increase in news portals in Guwahati, accusations have been made that some of these are involved in extorting money from businesses using different tactics. Recently, the Basistha Police arrested a reporter of a local web portal for allegedly demanding money from a businessman.
On Tuesday, a similar incident was reported in Guwahati. Two reporters of two different web portals have been arrested by the Dispur Police for allegedly demanding money from a Spa (A Call Above) located in the Six Mile area of the city.
The accused have been identified as Prasanta Das and Yacher Arafat.
The Dispur Police informed that, the accused had tried to blackmail the Spa owner for running illegal activities within the premises and demanded Rs. 1.50 lakh for not making it a news story.
Later in the evening when reporters came back to the Spa to collect the money, the owner and the employees of the Spa held them and informed the police. The accused tried to flee the scene but with help of the locals the police arrested them near Rahman Hospital on the VIP road, Six Mile.
The owner of the Spa has lodged an FIR at the Dispur Police Station and a case has been registered. It is to be noted that in Guwahati several cases of fake reporters and web portals trying to make easy money have been reported.
