Meerut (UP), Nov 24 (IANS): A 17-year-old boy has been arrested and sent to a juvenile home for allegedly making extortion calls to jewellers here, asking them to pay a total of Rs 20 lakh.

The teen had flunked his Class 10 examination last year and was pursuing his studies from an open school. He decided to extort money after his parents refused to give him hefty pocket money.

After taking notes on how to make extortion calls from social media, the teen allegedly sought Rs 20 lakh from three jewellers in the city.

The accused's father is a contractual employee in the power department, and his mother is a housewife, police said.

During interrogation, he revealed that he was inspired by an article about extortion of a businessman. He scanned social media to learn how to talk like a gangster and make calls using the internet so that his IP address could not be tracked, a senior police official said.

He procured the contact numbers of the jewellers from their hoardings and called them via the internet.

Three jewellers received extortion calls within a span of one week.

"He had asked for Rs 5 lakh each from two jewellers and Rs 10 lakh from the third one. We had then formed a team to crack the case," a police officer said.