Grilling of extortion accused yields police IDs, 7 more pistols
Police suspect accused planning "something big" in city, recovered illegal weapons, SUVs, and fake police items; investigating income source and intentions.
Four days after the arrest of two accused for extorting money from people by threatening them, the police suspect that the accused were planning “something big” in the city. Police have recovered seven illegal pistols, a sports-utility vehicle (SUV), two handcuffs, photographs of the accused wearing uniform of a deputy superintendent of police (DSP), police identification cards and fake stamps of senior superintendent of police (SSP Ludhiana Rural) from their possession. A total of eight illegal weapons and two SUVs have been recovered from the accused so far.
Ludhiana commissioner of police Kuldeep Singh Chahal said that the police have recovered some property documents from the possession of the accused, Amritpal Singh and Tajinder Singh Gill. The land is expensive and the police are investigating to find out how they managed to "buy” it.
“The accused who are on police remand informed officials that the accused had procured the weapons from an illegal arms supplier from Madhya Pradesh. They also bought 1.5 acre of land near Doraha. Police are investigating the source of the income of the accused and how they managed to purchase the land, weapons and the SUVs which were recovered from their possession,” Chahal added.
“The police are investigating to find out what they were planning to execute in the city,” he said.
Their two aides, Ramandeep Singh, who is settled in Manila, and Puneet of Jalandhar, who is settled in Vancouver, are yet to be arrested.
Amritpal Singh alias Amrit, 32, of Mullanpur Dakha and Tajinderpal Singh Gill, 47, of Sidhwan Bet, who was living in MIG flats in Aggar Nagar, were arrested by Sarabha Nagar police for threatening Aggar Nagar resident Gaurav Mittal for ₹3 crore extortion money. The police had recovered a Toyota Fortuner car, five mobile phones, and a pistol and seven bullets from them.
On April 20, police lodged two more first-information reports (FIRs) against the accused following the complaints of two locals. The accused were threatening them over the phone seeking extortion money.
The police chief said that the accused are in police remand till April 25 and are being questioned for more information.
Modus operandi
The accused had availed a flat in the posh locality to keep a tab on rich people living in the area. After doing recce and clicking pictures of their family members, they made extortion calls to them.
