Faridkot, March 9
The police have arrested a miscreant on Saturday for making extortion calls to businessmen in the region by posing as an aide of gangster Goldy Brar.
Suspect Nikhil Kumar allegedly made a WhatsApp call to a medicine shop owner here. According to police sources, the call came from a number with the United Kingdom country code.
He introduced himself to the chemist as an associate of Canada-based gangster Goldy Brar and demanded Rs 6 lakh from him. He threatened to upload photographs of the chemist’s daughter on social media if the demand was not met. The businessman’s daughter is a student in Canada.
In his complaint to Faridkot SSP, the aggrieved chemist alleged that apart from the WhatsApp call to him, the suspect had called his son and an employee at his shop.
The shop owner told the police that the caller went to the extent of threatening to kill his daughter in Canada.
During the investigation by the cyber cell of Faridkot police, it was discovered that the suspect had called the chemist by accessing the Internet through a local number. Tracking the local number led the police to Nikhil Kumar, resident of Mohall Kokhra here.
Faridkot SSP Harjeet Singh said they had arrested Nikhil and a thorough investigation had been started to identify his accomplices, if any. “Using international numbers to make WhatsApp calls is the latest method adopted by miscreants to extort money. WhatsApp calls from international numbers do not necessarily mean that the calls have originated from those countries. We are all aware that a WhatsApp call can be made from anywhere over the Internet,” he added. The SSP said that the police would soon find out how Nikhil obtained an international number to make the calls.
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