: The Delhi Police Special Cell has arrested 10 men for allegedly extorting money from businessmen in in the name of the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
The matter came to light when an assistant director with the ED approached the police with a complaint that the agency’s name had been used to extort money from two Kolkata-based businessmen.
“The businessmen— Sanjay Surekha and Mahavir Aggarwal— had received summons from the ED, Delhi, to join investigations regarding complaints of money laundering by their companies. When the businessmen approached the the agency, they were shocked to know that no such summon was ever issued,” said the officer.
Tracing the copies of the summons and the addresses from where they were posted, Special Cell sleuths found that members of this syndicate were scattered across the country.
“Two of the accused, Kalyan Shukla and Gaurav Pradhan, were nabbed from Kolkata by a team led by S-I Jeetendra Tiwari. The duo had met Mr. Surekha at the ITC Hotel in Kolkata, and had tried to extort Rs. 5 crore from him. But Mr. Surekha became suspicious and reported the matter to the ED,” said the officer.
The fake summons were allegedly prepared by one Mohd. Tariq at his cyber café in Mewat. He also procured fake seals/ stamps of the ED.
A senior police officer said Alex Joseph, the alleged kingpin of the network, was also accused of importing 500 luxury cars by evading an import duty to the tune of Rs. 200 crore.
