BENGALURU: Two men, who allegedly extorted money from two schools claiming to be

(RTE) activists were arrested on Tuesday night.

Ravi Kumar, 44, and

, 40, were arrested on the basis of complaints from the two schools.

Ravi, who heads an organization called

, allegedly helped parents file petitions against several schools, accusing the institutions of demanding high fees and denying admissions under RTE quota and various other issues. Later, he would visit the same schools and extort money to settle matters.

“He would barge into our school and fight over matters related to fees. There were a lot of cases where parents wouldn’t be able to pay the the required amount and he’d allege that we are seeking high fees. He even used foul language with female teachers. Fed up of this harassment, we registered a case against him. We have also filed a case with the state commission for women,” said Asha Lata, principal of Sri Krishna International School, Banashankari, and one of the complainants.

Raja Nayak was an associate of

.

Chethan Singh Rathore, DCP-north, said they arrested the produced accused duo before the judge. “The court has remanded them them in judicial custody for 14 days,” he said.

said Ravi is an accused in 19 criminal cases filed by managements of different private schools.

“These FIRs were registered on the basis of complaints filed by school authorities, who accused Ravi Kumar of approaching them with vested interest. When school authorities refused to budge, he would defame them,” police said, adding, “He would stage protests outside schools which would have turned down his request for money or other favours. The accused would approach parents with poor financial background and force them to writ petitions against the school managements. In a few cases, Ravi himself had thrown liquor bottles inside school compounds and later led protests, saying the managements were supplying liquor to faculties and students,” police said.

Several schools have filed complaints with the Associated Managements of Private Schools of Karnataka (AMPSK).

Shashi Kumar, general secretary, AMPSK, said, “Self-proclaimed activists and associations are interfering too much in the day-to-day functioning of educational institutions, targeting low-budget schools. Some of these groups are out to find ways to extort money. We have received various complaints and have forwarded their requests to the education and law departments, seeking their help. Also, if parents have a dispute with any school’s management, they can directly approach the appropriate authority.”