Lucknow: A day after the Uttar Pradesh Vigilance Establishment arrested a Lucknow Development Authority (LDA) junior engineer, along with a supervisor and a middleman, for allegedly accepting a bribe, the complainant, Jitendra Narayan, an NRI businessman, claimed the accused had initially demanded Rs 40 lakh to stop action against his commercial complex before settling for Rs 15 lakh.Talking to the media, Narayan alleged that he faced weeks of intimidation, including repeated threats of demolition and sealing of his property, leaving him under severe mental stress and forcing him to contemplate leaving India.“They first demanded Rs 40 lakh. When I said I could not arrange that amount, it was reduced to Rs 25 lakh and eventually settled at Rs 15 lakh. The first instalment was fixed at Rs 7.5 lakh,” he claimed.According to him, officials repeatedly warned that bulldozers would be sent to demolish the nearly 10,000-sq-ft complex, which houses around 50 shops, if he failed to pay.Narayan further alleged that middleman Shravan Kumar frequently warned him of demolition. He claimed LDA officials would subsequently visit the site, reinforcing the pressure. Before approaching the Vigilance Establishment, he allegedly transferred around Rs 70,000 online and later provided investigators with WhatsApp chats and other digital evidence.The Vigilance Establishment is now examining whether the case points to a larger extortion network linked to IGRS complaints. Investigators are scrutinising digital evidence, financial transactions and call records. Meanwhile, LDA vice-chairman Prathamesh Kumar has suspended supervisor Chandra Prakash and recommended the suspension of the junior engineer.
