ALIGARH:  The police have arrested the nephew of a woman professor of the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), for allegedly sending her a ransom letter, along with an empty gun cartridges, and demanding Rs 10 lakh from her.

Two of his accomplices have also been arrested.

The police said that five persons, including the prime accused, Danish Ali, who is a nephew of Dr Shagufta Moin, professor in department of biochemistry in AMU’s Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, had planned to extort money from her.

While Danish and two of his friends — Anjeb Rehman and Deepak Tewari — have been arrested, their accomplices Mohd Naved and Mohd Adnan are absconding.

Deepak had managed to procure a SIM card using a fake ID proof to call the professor’s family, said police.

During interrogation, Danish told police that he needed money to repay his debts.

He claimed that he had earlier asked for Rs 1 lakh from Dr Moin for the treatment of his newborn child but she had refused and his baby had died. He said he wanted to take revenge and thus planned to extort money by threatening her.

An FIR has been registered under section 387 (putting a person in fear of death or grievous hurt, in order to commit extortion), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 120 B (criminal conspiracy) of IPC at Kawarsi police station on a basis of a complaint filed by Dr Moin’s husband, Naved Mukhtar, a businessman.

Another FIR has been lodged against the accused under section 3/25 of the Arms Act.

In the FIR, Mukhtar, stated that his wife had received a call from a person who identified himself as Raju from Noida on Monday evening, asking her to pick up an envelope lying outside their house.

“When I opened the envelope, which was placed on the hood of my car, I found three empty cartridges that had our names written on them, and a letter demanding a ransom of Rs 10 lakh,” the FIR said.

Circle officer (Civil Lines) Shwetabh Pandey told reporters that police have recovered a country-made pistol, along with live cartridges from the accused. The SIM card that was used to make the phone call was also recovered.

He said the arrested accused have been remanded in judicial custody, and a manhunt has been launched to nab the other two accused. — IANS