A senior police officer with the Tainan City Police Department was released on NT$100,000 (US$3,265) bail Sunday after being arrested in a case involving extortion a day earlier.

The Hsinchu District Court ordered that the police officer, identified as Chuang Wu-neng (???), be released on bail after prosecutors requested that he be detained. Chuang had been arrested by Hsinchu County police in a mountain area in Jianshi Township on Saturday.

The case was triggered when Hengshan Precinct in the county received a report from a person a few days earlier saying they were being extorted for money, according to precinct chief Kuo Yao-nan (???).

After an investigation, precinct police suspected Chuang of sending a text to the person who filed the report -- allegedly a Hsinchu County councilor according to local media -- saying that he had damaging information about the person and wanted NT$10 million to keep quiet.

They then moved to arrest him after tracking down his whereabouts on Saturday, according to Kuo.

Chuang resisted arrest by trying to ram his vehicle into police personnel and vehicles, forcing policemen to fire one warning shot in the air and another eight at the tires of his vehicle before subduing him.

After being questioned, Chuang and a woman who was in Chuang's car when the arrest was made were transported to the Hsinchu District Prosecutors Office early Sunday on suspicion of extortion and offenses involving interference with public affairs.

The Tainan City Police Department said in a statement Sunday that Chuang is the director of the department's office of secretariat and is an officer of a rank equivalent to a colonel in the military.

Because of the severity of the allegations, the department decided to discipline Chuang with a major demerit and transfer him to a non-supervisory post, the statement said.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel