Two nabbed for demanding Rs 3 crore extortion from bizman

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, April 19

The Sarabha Nagar police held two persons who had demanded Rs 3 crore extortion from a city- based industrialist. The police managed to crack the case in a short span of time with the arrest of two persons.

Earlier, duo demanded Rs 1 cr from doc

ADCP-3 Gurpreet Kaur Purewal said during the questioning of the duo, the police managed to crack another extortion case in which they had demanded Rs 1 crore from city doctor Daman Makkar. He had lodged a complaint with the cyber cell but the suspects were yet to be identified. However, their arrest in the latest case helped solve both cases.

The suspects have been identified as Amritpal Singh, alias Amritsar (32), of Mullanpur Dakha and Tajinderpal Singh (47) of Rajguru Nagar. The police seized a Toyota Fortuner (bearing registration number PB65AX0008), five mobile phones and one .32 bore pistol along with seven cartridges.

ADCP-3 Gurpreet Kaur Purewal, ACP (West) Murad Jasvir Singh and Sarabha Nagar SHO inspector Paramvir Singh addressed a press conference regarding the matter on Friday.

The ADCP said city-based industrialist Gaurav Mittal, a resident of Aggar Nagar, had lodged a police complaint on April 17 that he received a WhatsApp call on his personal mobile number from some foreign number. The caller posed himself as gangster Ramandeep and a close aide of dreaded gangster Goldy Brar. The caller threatened the businessman that if he failed to give Rs 3 crore extortion money, he would kill him and his family members.

“The suspect told me that they have all information about me and family members, including children. He said they are also keeping a tab over locations of my family members. I was frightened when he sent pictures of my wife and children clicked when they were out in the market,” the complainant told the police.

He said on March 29, his wife and children had gone towards South City when the suspect chased them. Luckily, his wife had noted the registration number of the Toyota Fortuner, which was later given to the police along with the complaint.

The ADCP said after launching a probe, suspects were identified and with the arrest of the two suspects, the case was cracked in a few hours of investigation.

Revealing about the modus operandi, ADCP Purewal said both suspects used to identify prominent industrialists or businessmen and then, keep a tab over them and their families. They would even click photographs and make videos of family members, which they would send to victims through their phone numbers.

Tajinderpal has a notorious past as he is facing four cases registered against him in the past at Barnala, Moga and Ludhiana.

ADCP-3 Gurpreet Kaur Purewal said during the questioning of the suspects, the police managed to crack another extortion case in which they had demanded Rs 1 crore from a city-based doctor, Daman Makkar. Dr Makkar had already lodged a complaint with the cyber cell but the suspects were yet to be identified. However, their arrest in the latest case helped solve both cases. The suspects tried to extort money by using the same modus operandi from Dr Makkar as their mobile phones were having photographs and videos of Makkar and his family. Further investigation might provide more clues to the police regarding extortion calls made in the past.

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