Surat: The Special Operations Group (SOG) of Surat Police today arrested a former corporator of the Surat Municipal Corporation in an extortion case. Former corporator Prakash Desai was caught red-handed while accepting ₹3 lakh.

Prakash Desai had allegedly demanded ₹4.50 lakh from the manager of Leo Classes after repeatedly filing RTIs against the institute. He threatened to stage a dharna outside the municipal corporation head office if the money was not paid and had set Thursday as the deadline. Fed up with repeated harassment, the administrator of Leo Classes finally filed a police complaint. The complainant revealed that Desai used codewords like “theater” and “ticket” for the extortion demand, after which the SOG caught him red-handed while accepting the extortion money.

Several cases involving alleged journalists and RTI activists misusing their position for extortion have emerged in the city. Earlier, AAP corporator Rajesh Moradiya and his aide Pankaj Patel were arrested for extorting money from a businessman. DeshGujarat