journo, 5 others held for extortion

In a shocking incident, seven persons, including two local journalists, posed as police and tried to extort from gullible travelers near Shamshabad on the National Highway on Tuesday.

The gang had been doing this for quite a while and recently extorted Rs 80000 from a lorry owner. On suspicion, the lorry owners approached the police. The police who laid a trap, managed to nab seven persons. The arrested persons have been identified as Venkat Reddy, Govardhan Reddy, Shivakumar, SK Reddy and Srinivas. One more person, Madireddy Rajender Reddy, a local journalist, is at large.The police are on the lookout for him. All the arrested persons are from Shamshabd.