Mysore/Mysuru: Five persons, said to be from a YouTube News Channel, who tried to blackmail a person, was caught by the public and handed over to the Police. The incident took place on Ashoka Road in city on June 25 afternoon.

Those arrested are Abhilash, Mani, Pradeep, Basavaraju and Naveen Kumar, all said to be from Karnataka Public Voice News Channel (KPV News). On June 25 afternoon, all the five accused, who came in a Tata Indica car (KA-18-B-7037) to the house of one Umar Shariff on Ashoka Road, tried to barge into the house along with cameras but were stopped from entering the house by Shariff.

The five persons, then told Shariff that he (Shariff) was illegally refilling LPG in his house and they would capture the video of it and telecast the same on TV. One of the five persons told Shariff that he was a Police from Bengaluru and began to shout on Shariff.

Meanwhile, a crowd began to gather in front of Shariff’s house and former Corporator Suhail Baig too arrived at the spot and told the person who said that he was a Police from Bengaluru, that there was no illegal LPG refilling going on in the house and told them that if they wanted to raid the house call the jurisdictional Police to the spot as this was a sensitive area and problem may arise if local Police was not present at the spot.

The person, who had stated that he was Police, told Suhail Baig that there was no need for local Police and asked him  (Suhail Baig) to get them something from Shariff and they would go away.

Suhail, who got confirmed that he was a fake Police, immediately called Mandi Police Station and handed over the five persons to the Police.

Mandi Police, who arrested all the five persons, also seized the car besides registering a case against them. All the five persons were produced before a Court, which remanded them to judicial custody.