Ahmedabad, Feb 13 (IANS): The Gujarat ATS has arrested five people for blackmailing and attempting to extort money from a retired officer.

The gang had created an affidavit in the name of a woman to trap the former IPS officer.

In a press statement, the ATS stated that it has arrested two politicians and three journalists in connection with a blackmail and extortion attempt. Those arrested are G K Prajapati, Haresh Jadav, Mahendra Parmar alias Raju Gemini, Ashutosh Pandya, and Kartik Jani.

According to the statement, Prajapati had convinced a woman to get an affidavit in her name, in which she had to allege that a very senior retired officer had raped her twice. Based on this affidavit, the gang had planned to blackmail the retired officer and extort at least Rs 8 crore from him.

In order to get the affidavit prepared, the woman was taken to a bungalow in Ahmedabad, where a person was introduced to her as a senior police officer, who had raped her on two occasions. The person had impersonated an officer, but he was not a member of the gang.

The police have arrested all the five persons for rape, extortion, criminal intimidation, and other violations of the Indian Penal Code.