KATHMANDU: Police said they on Monday arrested former minister Shyam Sundar Gupta on charge of extortion from Talsikhel of Lalitpur.

Earlier, he was convicted of businessman Pawan Kumar Sanghai's abduction for ransom, and jailed for three years.

Shyam Sundar Gupta was presented before the Lalitpur District Court today and remanded in custody for four days, according to SSP Pitambar Adhikari, the chief of Metropolitan Police Range, Lalitpur.

Police held Gupta after receiving complaint that he intimidated and tried to extort money from a woman entrepreneur.

Gupta and his accomplices, including his son, had abducted Sanghai in the morning of December 22, 2011 from the premises of Kamaladi Ganesh Temple.

They took him hostage for 20 days. Sanghai was released on January 11, 2012 after his family paid the abductors a hefty ransom of Rs 8.5 million.

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