24 Indians in Budapest jail
Gang of extortionists busted

GURDASPUR, Nov 11 (UNI) — The police today claimed to have busted the Indian leg of an international gang which, in tandem with its foreign counterpart, had been extorting money from India-based relatives of illegal Indians abroad by threatening to implicate their wards in false cases abroad.

SSP Varinder Kumar said all four members of the gang, including a father and son duo and a husband-wife team, had, absconded after the registration of a case of cheating and criminal conspiracy against them by the city police here on November 4.

He said while Harjinder Singh, a resident of Delhi, got his relative Harminder Singh released from the captivity of foreign gangsters by paying a ransom of $ 3000, 24 unlucky Indian youths, including two sons of parents, whose complaint led to the busting of the gang, had been languishing in a Budapest jail in Hungary since December, as their relatives in India had refused to pay the ransom money to the gangsters.

Joginder Pal and Gurbachan Singh, residents of Prem Nagar here, told the police that Inderjit Singh along with his father Mehnga Singh of Garhi village in Hoshiarpur district had contacted them here through a common acquaintance and offered to send their sons abroad for Rs 3.10 lakh each.

The two parents said they paid Inderjit and Mehnga Singh an advance of Rs 3 lakh for sending their sons Balwinder Singh alias Bittu and Lakhwinder Singh Nitoo abroad. Inderjit and his father took away the passports of the youths along with the advance in November, last year.

They said they took their sons to a lounge in the Paharganj area of Delhi where Inderjit asked them to wait for a few days and demanded the remaining sum of Rs 3.20 lakh. The parents promised to pay it after their sons reached Germany via Hungary as promised by Inderjit and his father. Bittu and Nitoo left for Hungary in the first week of December, last year.

The parents told the police that after Inderjit had collected the entire balance amount, one Sucha Singh who had accompanied their sons abroad, called them and said that their sons were with him at Moscow and they should deliver the remaining sum of Rs 3.20 lakh to his wife at Kapurthala.

When the parents talked to Inderjit about the demand made by Sucha Singh, Inderjit started avoiding them.

The parents said a few days later Sucha Singh again rang them up ordering them to pay the money to his wife at Kapurthala failing which he threatened to get their sons arrested abroad. The parents said they did not pay up as demanded by Sucha Singh and later learnt that Sucha Singh had sold their sons to a foreign gang which started making telephonic demand of $ 3000 each, for the release of the boys.

The parents said they heard shrieks of their sons in the captivity of foreign gang during telephonic conversations.

They said in their efforts to get their sons released, they came to know of a case of a Delhi boy whose relative Harjinder Singh had rescued Harminder Singh from the clutches of a foreign gang after paying a ransom of $ 3000. They said when they approached Harjinder Singh for help he demanded $ 4000 to get their sons released.

Meanwhile, the police in Hungary raided a hideout of the foreign gang and rescued many Indian boys but lodged them in a Budapest jail as revealed by Bittu and Nitoo in their letters to their parents. They said they were among the 24 Indians lodged in jail there.

The police here raided several hideouts of Inderjit, his accomplice Sucha Singh and his wife without success so far. All accused had absconded, the SSP added.

Badal seeks PM’s intervention
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Nov 11 — The Punjab Chief Minister, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, today requested the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, to intervene and direct all Indian embassies to provide help to Punjabis who were duped by unscrupulous travel agents and were presently languishing in jails in Kiew (Ukraine), Moscow and in other parts of the world.

In a letter handed over to the Prime Minister when he called on him today, the Chief Minister requested him to direct the authorities concerned to make arrangements for ensuring the return of such duped persons to India at the earliest.

He also informed the Prime Minister that he had already directed the officers of the state government to educate the people to not become illegal human cargo and plan their foreign visits after a thorough study of the situation and consultation with legal experts.