: The special task force (STF) of the Haryana police on Saturday claimed that a group of persons, arrested two weeks ago from different parts of the country for allegedly issuing threat calls to five MLAs of the state, have links to Pakistan and the Middle East.
Two weeks ago, Haryana STF had arrested Dulesh Aalam and Badre Aalam from Mumbai, Amit Yadav alias Radheshyam, Sanoj Kumar, Saddiq Anwar, Abulesh Aalam and Iqbal Kash Aalam from Bihar’s Muzaffarpur.
The STF officials, who were part of the probe, said Iqbal Kash Aalam had returned to India after staying in Middle East countries.
“The Haryana MLAs had received threat calls from phone numbers of Middle East countries, which were operated from Pakistan. Punjab legislators had also received extortion calls from the same numbers and the callers had talked to them in different languages,” the officials said.
Sumit Kumar, SP-special task force, told reporters in Sonepat that during interrogation, it was revealed that the accused had sent ₹ 2.77 crores to Pakistan through the Hawala network.
“These accused had sent money to Pakistan from 727 bank accounts and transaction was done 867 times. These accounts belonged to those people whose at least one family member is staying abroad and the extortion amount was transferred to the accounts of people based in Pakistan,” Kumar said.
{{/usCountry}}“These accused had sent money to Pakistan from 727 bank accounts and transaction was done 867 times. These accounts belonged to those people whose at least one family member is staying abroad and the extortion amount was transferred to the accounts of people based in Pakistan,” Kumar said.
{{/usCountry}}As per the primary probe, 10 members of this gang are still operating the network from Pakistan. The callers had used 18 virtual numbers for giving threat calls to Haryana, Punjab and Delhi MLAs in June and July months, the STF officials said.
Kumar said they had recovered mobile phones, cash, passbook, debit cards and SIMs from the accused.
“Iqbal Kash Aalam and Saddiq Anwar had relations with Middle East nations. They were in contact with one Rakesh in UAE, and in Pakistan, they were in contact with Ali, Nazir, Wasim, Imran, MD Khan and Rafiq. The entire gang used to issue threat calls to MLAs on direct call, whatsapp, email and social media accounts,” Kumar added.
STF IG Satheesh Balan said Abulesh Aalam of Bihar was the mastermind of the entire gang.
“He is an expert of extorting money through cyber crime. Later, he groomed his younger brother Dulesh Aalam and Amit for carrying extortion bids online with the help of his aides staying in another nation,” Balan added. ENDS