Amritsar extortion case: Gajinderjit Singh worked near victim's factory

Tribune News Service

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Amritsar, December 31

Gajinderjit Singh, alias Rajbir, one of the suspects arrested by the city police on the charge of extortion on Thursday, used to work in a factory near the victim’s aluminium factory at the Focal Point here. Gajinderjit and his maternal uncle Charanjit Singh, aka Chan, a resident of Kharar in Mohali, were brought on four-day police remand for further interrogation.

According to an official privy to investigation, the police were identifying the insider who tipped off the accused that the victims had procured new cars worth Rs 2 crore recently. They demanded an extortion of Rs 5 crore from Rohit Sabharwal, owner of the aluminium factory. One of the suspects had a criminal case registered against him and as per preliminary investigations they did not have any links with notorious criminals though further investigation was underway.

Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (Detective) Jugraj Singh said more arrests were likely to be made during the further course of investigations. He said an initial probe revealed that they had been secretly keeping an eye on the victim for the last 15 days before they called the victim and demanded ‘protection money’.

As per the details, Rohit Sabharwal who had gone to Panchkula to meet his relative two weeks ago got a call from unidentified persons who demanded money while threatening him of dire consequences if he failed to meet their demand. He immediately informed Panchkula police about this. Two days ago, they again got a call from unidentified persons for the same.

This is the second such case that has come to light in the past two months indicating that the extortion rackets run by notorious criminals allegedly being sheltered by their political bosses are running with impunity.