Five arrested on charge of extortion; country-made pistol, motorcycle, Rs 1.50 lakh recovered

With the arrest of five persons, the Amritsar (Rural) police have busted a gang involved in extorting huge amount from traders, commission agents and others by posing as gangsters.

The police recovered a country-made pistol along with a bike and an SUV, besides Rs 1.50 lakh extorted from a local registered medical practitioner (RMP).

Among those arrested included Gurinder Singh, a resident of Nangal Guru village, and Manpreet Singh and Gupreet Singh, both residents of Jalalabad village in Tarn Taran, Sumandeep Singh, a resident of Khan Chhabri village in Tarn Taran, and Sharanpreet, a resident of Khela village in Tarn Taran. Their two accomplices identified as Simranjit Singh, a resident of Bodal village in Tarn Taran, and Ramandeep Singh, a resident of Chatiwind in Amritsar, were still on the run.

Giving details, Charanjit Singh, SSP, Amritsar (Rural) said Sukhdev Singh, a resident of Taragarh Talawan village, was an RMP doctor by profession at Nangal Guru village. Yesterday, he approached the police and lodged a complaint that he was being threatened by unknown persons for money. The victim said he received a call on August 20 from foreign numbers, but did not respond. Similarly, again on August 22 he received a call from a foreign number, but he did not attend the call. He said last night when he was closing his shop, two bike-borne persons stopped and threatened to kill him and his son if he failed to pay Rs 5 lakh to them. The victim said as he was afraid, he gave Rs 3 lakh to the suspects at Bhinder village. As he had yet to give Rs 2 lakh to the suspects, he lodged a complaint with the police.

On the basis of the victim’s complaint, the police registered a case against suspects. During probe, the police identified the suspects and arrested them. The SSP said raids were on to nab the remaining two suspects.

Gurinder Singh was the prime suspect in the case as he lived in Nangal Guru village. He was nephew of the owner of the shop from where

Dr Sukhdev Singh runs his clinic. He hatched the entire conspiracy to extort money from Sukhdev. He involved Gurpreet Singh in his plan. Gurpreet further hired Manpreet and Simranjit for threat ening the doctor in order to extort money from him.