4 held for trying to extort Rs 10 cr from Panchkula man

The Faridkot police today claimed to have arrested four persons, including a woman, for allegedly demanding Rs 10 crore extortion money from a business partner of a Haryana MLA.

Complainant in the case Krishan Kumar is a resident of Panchkula. The police claimed the suspects belonged to Faridkot district and the complainant had reached Kotkapura on Friday evening to meet them to settle the extortion deal. After he failed to meet them, he approached the Kotkapura police and the arrests were made.

Those arrested were identified as Nidhi, her brother Rakesh Kumar, both residents of Kotkapura, Pawan Kumar, alias Panni, and Nikhil Kumar of Faridkot.

As per an FIR registered by the Kotkapura police, Krishan Kumar is a business partner of Devender Singh, Independent MLA from Ganaur in Sonepat district of Haryana. Devender Singh is in hotel business in Haryana. Krishan Kumar alleged he had been receiving one-time messages on WhatsApp for the past one week demanding Rs 10 crore from him. The messages disappeared once opened by the recipient.

Sources said the suspects were threatening to make public some obscene material to tarnish complainant’s image, if money was not paid to them.

Faridkot SSP Dr Pragya Jain said of the four arrested persons, only Nikhil Kumar had criminal history.