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Ludhiana: Extortion racket busted, 2 nabbed, pistol, SUV seized
The accused have been identified as 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
Strap: 2 of the accused, who were operating from Vancouver and Manila, yet to be arrested
The police busted an extortion gang with the arrest of two accused, who made extortion calls to a city-based industrialist and a doctor, while two of the accused, who were operating from Vancouver and Manila, are yet to be arrested.
The accused have been identified as 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. According to the police, they arrested the accused near Bhai Randhir Singh Nagar following a tip-off. The accused tried to escape from the spot. During the escape bid, Tajinder slipped on the road and fractured his leg.
The police have recovered a Toyota Fortuner, five mobile phones and a pistol besides seven bullets from their possession. The police sent the mobile phones to the cyber cell to extract data from it to know if the accused had targeted some other families too.
Additional deputy commissioner of police (ADCP, city 3) Gurpreet Kaur Purewal stated that Gaurav Mittal of Aggar Nagar made a complaint to the police about the extortion call. Mittal stated that he received a WhatsApp call from a foreign number. The caller demanded ₹3 crore from him and threatened to kill his wife, children for not paying the money.
The accused also sent pictures of his wife and children, which were secretly clicked during their outing to terrify him.
“Soon after receiving a complaint, the police lodged an FIR against the unidentified accused. In his statement, Mittal said the pictures were clicked on March 29, when his wife and children went to a shopping mall from South City. The police scanned the CCTVs installed near the spot and identified the accused. Later, the police arrested the accused,” said the ADCP.
“When interrogated, Tajinderpal told police that they hatched a conspiracy to extort money from industrialists and doctors and involved his cousin Ramandeep Singh, who is settled in Canada and another accomplice Puneet of Jalandhar, who is settled in Vancouver. They clicked the pictures of families of their targets and sent it to Ramandeep in Manila, who made extortion calls,” the ADCP added.
Further the ADCP added that apart from Mittal the accused had made an extortion call to a city-based doctor, Daman Makkar and demanded ₹1 crore from him. Tajinder is already facing trial in four cases. The weapon recovered from the accused is illegal.
Inspector Paramvir Singh, SHO at Sarabha Nagar police station, stated that Tajinderpal had availed a flat in the posh locality to keep a tab on rich people. After doing recce, they made extortion calls to them.
The inspector added that the SUV recovered from the accused belongs to another cousin of Tajinderpal, whose role in the crime is under scanner. They had spent ₹5 lakh to obtain a fancy number for the vehicle.
A case under sections 384 (extortion), 386 (extortion by putting a person in fear of death or grievous hurt) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC has been lodged against the accused at Sarabha Nagar police station. More important information has been expected from the accused during questioning.
