E-Paper
Ludhiana: Extortion racket run by Canada-based gangster busted, 7 aides held
Ludhiana police have busted an international extortion racket operated by gangster from Canada, Sukha Duneke, and arrested seven members of the gang, who had demanded a ransom of ₹3 crore from an industrialist
In a major breakthrough, the city police have busted an international extortion racket operated by a notorious gangster from Canada, Sukha Duneke, and arrested seven members of the gang, who had threatened a local industrialist of the city and demanded a ransom of ₹3 crore.
The gang members had even opened fire near the industrialist’s house on June 16. Police officials said that the industrialist has even paid a portion of the extortion amount to the accused
The police have recovered illegal weapons, including four country-made pistols along with five magazines of both .32 bore and .30 bore and 36 live cartridges, from their possession. The police have also recovered ₹1 lakh cash as extortion money from the accused. The arrested accused have been identified as Lakhvir Singh alias Vicky of Rola village in Samrala, Lovepreet Singh alias Jaido of Mahel Khurd village in Barnala, Harvinder Singh alias Sunny of Sant Uttardev Nagar at Raikot Road in Barnala, Satnam Singh alias Satti of Shekha Road in Barnala, Shubham alias Shubhi of Shekha Road in Barnala, Dilpreet Singh alias Peeta Sarpanch of Sahnewal and Manpreet Singh alias Gola of Sahnewal.
Addressing the media, commissioner of police Kaustubh Sharma, who was accompanied by the joint commissioner, urban, Narinder Bhargav, said that on June 16 three assailants had fired in the air in Bhola Colony following which a Model Town-based industrialist, Subhash Arora, contacted the police and said that he had received an extortion call in which the accused claiming himself as gangster Sukha Duneke had sought ₹3 crore.
Arora told the police that at first, he thought that it would be a hoax call but a few days later three assailants had targeted him as he had refused to pay the amount.
Following this, a case under Sections 307, 384, 387 and 506 of IPC and 25 of the Arms Act was registered against the unidentified accused at Division Number 7 police station.
The police chief added that the teams comprising of officials from crime investigation agency (CIA) 1 & 2 and Division number 7 police station were formed who carried out an investigation and traced the motorcycle on which the three accused had come and open fired in the air.
The police nabbed Lakhvir on Wednesday and after questioning him, the team arrested four more accused from Barnala on the same day. Today, the team nabbed two more accused, Dilpreet and Manpreet from Sahnewal.
He said that as of now, the city police have recovered four country-made pistols (.32 bore) along with four magazines (.32 bore) and a magazine (.30 bore), 26 (.32 bore) live cartridges, 10 (.30 bore) live cartridges, ₹1 lakh cash extortion money, seven mobile phones and a motorcycle from the possession of the accused.
“We also found the involvement of gangster Sukha Duneke, Mandeep Singh of Moga and Arshdeep Singh of Barnala in the case. Duneke is in Canada, Arshdeep is already lodged in Ferozepur Jail and Mandeep is absconding,” he said.
The team that cracked the case was led by joint commissioner of police Dr Narinder Bhargav, ADCP-4 Tushar Gupta, ADCP- investigation Jagatpreet Singh, ACP East Jyoti Yadav and inspector Beant Juneja, in-charge CIA 2 accompanied the police chief in the press meet.
