Extortion racket busted, 3 arrested in Patti

Tarn Taran, July 28

The Patti city police have busted an extortion racket by arresting three persons of a nine-member gang. The gang members allegedly used to blackmail people by sexually assaulting them and videographing the incident. The gang includes five women and four men. Two women, including head of the racket, and a man have been arrested.

The arrested have been identified as Paramjit Kaur of Patti, head of the racket, Kiramjit Kaur Jhabal and Dilbag Singh of Kalanjar village.

Baljit Kaur, Sawinder Singh and four unidentified persons are absconding.

The police said the accused had been running the racket for long, but was unearthed recently when lambardar Kirpal Singh of Niranjanpur Fattuwala (Khilchian) lodged a complaint against them.

Kirpal Singh was contacted by Paramjit Kaur on mobile on July 22 to seek his help being the lambardar. She alleged that her husband was settled abroad and her in-laws were torturing her.

Kirpal Singh went to her house on July 24, where two women and a man were already present. They allegedly locked him up in a room and sexually assaulted him.

Kirpal Singh was severely beaten by the accused and was videographed too.

The accused demanded Rs 10 lakh to free him and threatened to put the video on the social media and lodge a police complaint, accusing him of rape. Kirpal Singh through one of his friends credited Rs 5,000 in their bank account. His other belongings such as mobile and purse too were taken by the accused.

Sub-Inspector Hardial Singh said on the complaint lodged by Kirpal Singh, a case under Sections 388, 386, 506, 342, 323, 148 and149 of the IPC had been registered.

The police said the arrested accused were produced in a court, which sent them to two-day police remand.