Nawanshahr cops bust extortion gang; 3 held

Nawanshahr, December 17

The Nawanshahr police claim to have busted a gang involved in extortion and arrested three of its members. Those arrested have been identified as Gurpreet Singh (32), a resident of Kathgarh village in Balachaur; Rajesh Kumar (24), a resident of Nawanshahr; and Rakesh Kumar Sau (27), a resident of Kota, Rajasthan.

Nawanshahr SSP Bhagirath Singh Meena said since October, the gang had been making extortion calls to a local businessman and demanding ransom from him. He said an FIR against unknown persons was registered on October 12, and teams of the CIA staff and the city police were constituted to crack the case under the supervision of SP (Investigation) Mukesh Kumar and DSP (D) Harpreet Singh.

“During preliminary interrogation, Gurpreet Singh disclosed that he was in contact with Lakhtej Singh, a resident of Moga, who is presently residing in Manila, Philippines. On his instructions, Gurpreet collected the information of the said businessman through Nawanshahr-based accused Rajesh Kumar,” the SSP said, adding then Rajesh conducted recce of the complainant on his motorcycle and further sent the information to Lakhtej.

He said the motorcycle used for the recce had also been recovered from Rajesh. “On the basis of the information shared by Rajesh, the main accused, Lakhtej, made ransom calls to the said businessman through different virtual numbers. Apart from this, the complainant had also received two other extortion calls, of which one was from Rakesh, and other call received on December 12 through a virtual number is suspected to be made by Amandeep Purewala, who is presently residing in the United States and is said to be the main accused in Timmy Chawla murder case,” the SSP added.

He further said the police had obtained a four-day remand of the accused from the court, and further investigation in the case was under way.