Kaithal jeweller arrested for faking ₹2-crore extortion threat

During three days of custody, Devender allegedly confessed that he had made the extortion call to Ravi Verma using a foreign WhatsApp number at Ravi’s request for which he was paid

Police on Wednesday claimed to have resolved a ₹2-crore extortion case with the arrest of the complainant from Pundri, who allegedly hatched a conspiracy to get police security.

SP directed the SDU to investigate the matter and apprehend the accused with assistance from cyber cell. (HT Photo for representation)

Special detective unit (SDU) in-charge inspector Sunil Kumar said Ravi Verma, owner of Lovely Jewellers in Pundri, had submitted a complaint to Kaithal SP Manpreet Singh Sudan on June 16, alleging that he had received a WhatsApp call from a foreign number on June 13 in which the caller threatened to kill him and demanded ₹2 crore as extortion.

SP directed the SDU to investigate the matter and apprehend the accused with assistance from cyber cell. During the investigation, police found that the allegations made by the complainant were false after which the SDU team arrested Devender, a resident of Sirsal, from Rajound town of Kaithal on June 28 with an illegal weapon.

During three days of custody, Devender allegedly confessed that he had made the extortion call to Ravi Verma using a foreign WhatsApp number at Ravi’s request for which he was paid.

Later, the police also arrested complainant Ravi for allegedly misleading the police and misusing government resources.