The Delhi Police have arrested four members of a gang, including a village head from Uttar Pradesh’s Mainpuri, for allegedly extorting money from Delhi-based doctors by posing as gangster Lawrence Bishnoi’s aides, officials said on Monday.
The gang was earlier involved in duping people on the pretext of installing mobile towers on their properties, they said.
The accused were identified as Rishi Sharma, 41, Arun Verma 38, Sabal Singh, 45, and Harsh, 38. Sabal is a ‘gram pradhan’ (village head) from Mainpuri, police said. Harsh, who was earlier a street vendor, now owns several luxury cars, they added.
The investigation started after Deep Chand Bandhu Hospital chief medical officer Dr Animesh lodged a complaint at Bharat Nagar police station. In his complaint, Dr Animesh said that on January 10, he received a threatening letter from the Lawrence Bishnoi syndicate, demanding protection money to be transferred to a bank account.
A case was registered, and an investigation was launched, police said.
The probe began with an analysis of the bank account given for transferring money, which was traced to Arun Verma from Ghaziabad. “Arun, an e-rickshaw operator, was apprehended and confessed to opening multiple bank accounts for the gang in exchange for commissions. We tracked purchases and set up surveillance,” said deputy commissioner of police (DCP Northwest) Bhisham Singh.
{{/usCountry}}The probe began with an analysis of the bank account given for transferring money, which was traced to Arun Verma from Ghaziabad. “Arun, an e-rickshaw operator, was apprehended and confessed to opening multiple bank accounts for the gang in exchange for commissions. We tracked purchases and set up surveillance,” said deputy commissioner of police (DCP Northwest) Bhisham Singh.
{{/usCountry}}Further investigations revealed that transactions from the account were linked to purchases at a liquor store on Loni Road in northeast Delhi. After scanning footage from closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras, police identified Rishi Sharma, a key suspect, making purchases on specific dates.
“During interrogation, Rishi disclosed the involvement of Sabal and Harsh, two long-time associates,” said the DCP.
Sharing the gang’s modus operandi, he said the operations evolved over the years. Initially, they duped individuals through a mobile tower installation scam. When the scam began losing traction, they shifted to extortion, leveraging fear by using the name of Lawrence Bishnoi gang, police said.
The group gathered publicly available data of doctors in Delhi, including their contact details, and sent threatening letters via post, demanding payments to a bank account controlled by its members. The letters were sent from the Krishna Nagar post office, with Rishi orchestrating the logistics, said the DCP.
Police recovered 140 forged mobile tower installation application forms, 11 ATM cards and multiple smartphones from the possession of the accused, the officials said.