Barabanki: Employees of a railway construction firm have alleged extortion in Uttar Pradesh's Barabanki even as police have arrested two accused in the case. Bhargava Ram of Andhra Pradesh, the project manager of the firm, which is building new platforms and station buildings for Safdarganj, Saidkhanpur, and Dariyaabad stations on the Barabanki-Ayodhya railway track alleged that six bike-borne goons associated with Gosaiganj MLA Abhay Singh arrived on the construction site on April 1 and started abusing them.
Bhargava said the goons threatened to stop the ongoing work at the railway station and even kill them if they did not pay the extortion money. He said the goons told him it was a “norm that whoever undertakes railway work here, he has to give 2 percent commission to MLA”. Subsequently, on April 8, the project manager lodged a complaint at the Ram Sanehi Ghat police station in this regard.
"In Barabanki some railway-related construction is going on. The complaints said that some outsiders were demanding money from them. A case has been lodged on the basis of the complaint and two accused have been arrested," said Additional SP Manoj Pandey. He also said that further legal action will be taken in the case.