Chennai: Inspector Mohammed Buhari and home guard Srinivasan were arrested on Tuesday for extorting about ₹40 lakh from a businessman by threatening to implicate him in the 2024 murder of BSP leader K Armstrong.The two were produced before VIII metropolitan magistrate court in George Town and remanded in judicial custody.The arrests followed a complaint by Akhil Kumar, 35, of Old Washermenpet, to Chennai police commissioner A Amalraj. Kumar alleged that Buhari, attached to St Thomas Mount police station, had collected ₹40 lakh from him over the past two years after a SIM card registered in Kumar’s name surfaced during an investigation into advocate Mottai Krishnan, who was arrested in the Armstrong murder case.Kumar denied involvement in the case and said he had given the mobile number to Krishnan in 2018. He added that Buhari and two plainclothes policemen searched his house for narcotics on Aug 2 but found nothing. Buhari then threatened to frame him in a drug case and demanded another ₹5 lakh, which Kumar handed over to Srinivasan near Washermenpet metro station.Following a preliminary inquiry, Amalraj transferred Buhari to the vacancy reserve on Monday. Elephant Gate police subsequently registered a case and arrested Buhari and Srinivasan.
