A 27-year-old man and his accomplice were arrested for allegedly trying to extorting ₹2 crore from a businessman in Delhi after posing as a gangster lodged in Tihar jail, the police said on Wednesday.
The accused, Deepak Sahrawat, made extortion calls and identified himself as gangster Shakti while his accomplice, Satish Kumar (19), arranged SIM cards for making the calls, they said.
The accused duo, worked at a chemist shop in Janakpuri. They targeted the businessman since they knew him and was a easy target to make quick money to fulfil their desires, police said.
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After receiving multiple extortion calls over the period of time from the accused, the businessman approached police with a complaint on Monday alleging that on January 23 at about 9 a.m., he received a phone call on his mobile from a man who identified himself as gangster “Shakti” calling from Tihar jail. The caller threatened him and demanded ₹2 crore. He was given two days for arranging the amount, a senior police officer said.
On the same day, he received a call from him again reiterating his demand. Later on March 3, he again received a phone call from him making threatening him to pay the demanded amount of else he would have to be ready to face the consequences, he said.
On receipt of the complaint, after conducting preliminary enquiry, a case was registered and on the basis of technical investigation, the location of the suspects were found to be active in the area of Hari Nagar and Janakpuri, said Shibesh Singh, Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime).
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During raids, one of the suspects, Satish Kumar, was arrested from Uttam Nagar and his personal mobile phone containing call records with his accomplice was recovered. Thereafter, at his instance, Deepak Sahrawat who had made extortion calls to complainant was apprehended from his house in Gole market area, he said.
Two mobile phones with SIM cards which were used for making extortion calls were recovered, he added.
“During the interrogation, it emerged that the accused Deepak and Satish worked at a chemist shop in Janakpuri, near the complainant’s business premises. The accused men wanted to earn some quick money to fulfil their desires and so hatched the conspiracy to extort money from the complainant as they considered him to be an easy prey,” the officer said.
Accused Satish Kumar arranged two SIMs from his home town in Allahabad and two mobile phones from Delhi. Sahrawat called the complainant, threatened him and demanded ₹2 crore as protection money. He called the complainant from the vicinity of Tihar jail and identified himself as a gangster Shakti lodged in Tihar jail. They did not use their personal mobile numbers for the purpose of making extortion calls to avoid any trouble, he said.