City police make fourth arrest in docs' extortion case

PK Jaiswar

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Amritsar, September 3

The Punjab Police have made fourth arrest in the extortion case, in which two city-based doctors got an extortion call on their social media platforms.

The victims were identified as Dr Rajnish Kumar and Dr Manan Anand. The fourth accused arrested in the case has been identified as Ashok Yadav, a resident of Jawkatia in Champaran Bettiah, Bihar.

Earlier, the police had arrested Prince Kumar of Siswa Mauje village and Vikas Kumar of Sewarahan village in Lukarian tehsil, East Champaran district (Bihar). The police had seized their laptops and mobile phones and blocked their fake IDs on social media. Their interrogation had led to the arrest of third accused identified as Majahr Ahlam aka Sheikh Sharif from Vadodara in Gujarat. Majhar Khan was allegedly the mastermind of the “extortion racket”.

All of them were brought on production warrant from Amritsar Central Jail for further interrogation in the case.

Earlier, during investigation, the police had found that it was cyber fraudsters who were targeting doctors, traders and politicians in the recent past with an intent to extort huge amounts from them while posing as aides of notorious gangsters, including Lawrence Bishnoi and Jaggu Bhagwanpuria.

The police also laid their hands on nearly 150 bank accounts wherein they were seeking extortion amount to be deposited.

Mukhwinder Singh Bhullar, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Investigations), said, “The suspects used to create a WhatsApp ID and then used to call through Internet. They used to identify themselves as aides of notorious gangsters Lawrence Bishnoi, Goldy Brar and Jaggu Bhagwanpuria. Bishnoi and Bhagwanpuria were arrested by Punjab Police for interrogation in the Sidhu Moosewala murder case.”

They had allegedly demanded ransom worth lakhs from Dr Anand and Dr Sharma. They had given bank account numbers to the doctors, which led the police to the criminals. The police had registered separate cases in this connection.