Police arrested Vinod Kumar, a 28-year-old resident of Patti in Tarn Taran, on Thursday on charge of making extortion calls to Phase 3B1 resident Gurjeet Singh Oberoi in the name of a militant outfit.
Gurjeet, brother of Dubai-based hotelier SP Singh Oberoi who got 16 Punjabi youths incarcerated in Dubai freed, also alleged that the caller had threatened to eliminate his son and daughter in case he failed to pay Rs 1 crore. He has since been provided police security.
A case under Sections 386 (extortion by putting a person in fear of death or grievous hurt), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of IPC and Information Technology Act was registered at Mataur police station on Wednesday night on the complaint of Gurjeet Singh, who alleged that an unidentified person who identified himself as a member of Babbar Khalsa International had demanded Rs 1 crore.
“The calls to Oberoi were traced to Patti town in Tarn Taran district. A man identified as Vinod Kumar has been arrested. His preliminary interrogation did not reveal any connection with BKI.
He was just trying to terrorise Gurjeet,” said SAS Nagar SSP Gurpreet Singh Bhullar.
Police said that Vinod was employed with a liquor contractor and entrusted with the job of collecting money from liquor vends owned by his employer. He was picked up from his house in Patti.
“We are probing the reasons why Vinod made threat calls to Oberoi and who all are involved. As of now, our investigations have revealed that one Rahul alias Rikki is involved in making the calls and raids are on to arrest him,” said Bhullar.
{{/usCountry}}“We are probing the reasons why Vinod made threat calls to Oberoi and who all are involved. As of now, our investigations have revealed that one Rahul alias Rikki is involved in making the calls and raids are on to arrest him,” said Bhullar.
{{/usCountry}}Vinod told police that he was employed with Gurjeet Singh Oberoi about 18 months back and Oberoi owned him some money. Police sources said Vinod had called up Gurjeet to demand his dues.
Meanwhile, sources said that police had also picked up the second accused Rahul alias Rikki. The accused would be brought to SAS Nagar for questioning.