The Noida police on Tuesday registered a case of fraud against one of the four journalists who were arrested last week for allegedly blackmailing police personnel, officials said.
The FIR was lodged at the Kasna police station in Greater Noida against Chandan Rai over a complaint of fraud by a Ghaziabad-based businessman and politician who claimed that the scribe duped him of Rs 5 lakh over a period of time, they said.
The district police had on August 24 booked five journalists including Rai, 31, under the Gangsters Act for allegedly posting "motivated content" on their news portals with an intention to malign the image of government officials, especially policemen.
Four of them - Chandan Rai, Udit Goyal, Nitesh Pandey and Sushil Pandit - were arrested and remanded in police custody.
"Rai had got in touch with me because I am active in politics locally and promised to help by getting me positive publicity, building my image to help my political career using his media influence," complainant Hitesh Tyagi told police.
"He took Rs 1.50 lakh from me for that but did nothing. When I asked him, he said he was facing political problems and sought another Rs 2 lakh to get the work done," Tyagi said.
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"Rai also took money from me, saying I should have a weapon licence and he can get it done easily because he was in touch with the district magistrate. Overall, he took Rs 5 lakh from me but did nothing," he alleged, as per the FIR.
Tyagi said he recently got to know about the arrest of the four journalists after which he decided to approach the police, according to a police official.
An FIR under Sections 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 420 (fraud) of the Indian Penal Code had been registered against Rai, the official said.