A 22-year-old jobless man was arrested for attempting to extort Rs 5 lakh from a public school threatening to blow it up.
According to police, the man, identified as Vikas (22), had demanded Rs 5 lakh threatening to blow up Tagore Modern Public School located in west Delhi's Shalimar Bagh.
Vikas had first threatened Rajni Kholi, principal of the school, on Saturday asking her to hand over the amount or else, he would blow up the school.
"We were given 24 hours to arrange the cash. The principal received a second text message from Vikas next (Sunday) morning, reminding her that 12 hours had already lapsed," said a school official.
During investigation police suspected that the caller was someone from outside the school as he was sending the message to the principal and not the school's president, director or the secretary.
"We then realised that the caller must have got the principal's contact details from a board placed outside the school," said a police official.
Policemen then called on the cell phone number of the accused. "On learning, we were at the other end, he dared us to track him," he added.
During investigation, cops traced the cell phone location to a slum pocket near the school from where he was arrested.
"He had used his maternal uncle's SIM card to send the messages. His uncle had no idea about what Vikas was up to. It has come to the fore that he had no criminal record. As he was jobless, he tried to extort money from the school in a desperate bid to earn some quick buck," the official added.
