E-Paper
School friend extorts ₹2.5L from Ludhiana financier, arrested
The Ludhiana-based financier received an extortion call on November 18 from an unknown number. The caller claiming to be a gangster demanded ₹5 lakh
Police arrested a Basant Nagar resident and his aides for allegedly extorting ₹2.5 lakh from a city-based financier who he went to school with.
The accused, who has been identified as Lakhvir Singh alias Lucky, called the victim while posing as a gangster and threatened him to harm his family members if failed to pay the amount.
Police have also arrested Lakhvir’s aide Gurpreet Singh of Phullanwal village. Another one of his aides, Gora, is yet to be arrested. Lakhvir worked in a restaurant, while Gurpreet Singh is an electrician. The teams have also recovered the ₹2.5 lakh from the accused’s possession.
The first information report (FIR) has been registered based on the statement of the victim, Ajay Parkash of Phase 3, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar.
The complainant told police that he received an extortion call on November 18 from an unknown number. The caller claiming to be a gangster demanded ₹5 lakh as extortion money and listed the names and details of his family members to threaten him.
The accused made another call on November 20, asking Ajay to bring the ₹5-lakh consignment to a location near the Keys Hotel. Having arranged ₹2.5 lakh, the complainant drove to said location on Monday evening. Three accused showed up on a bike and took the bag and warned him against informing the police.
Ajay, however, filed a complaint to the police after.
Sharing further details, sub-inspector Sukhde Raj, who is investigating the case, said police initiated an investigation and arrested two accused soon after receiving the complaint.
The teams found that Lakhvir Singh and Ajay were school friends, but had lost contact over the years. A few days ago Lakhvir and Ajay met coincidently and exchanged details about their families.
On finding out about Ajay’s finances, Lakhvir Singh hatched the plan to extort money from him.
During questioning, the accused told police that he had watched news clips on social media and found how gangsters were making extortion calls to city residents. He convinced his friends to join in the plan, arranged a mobile phone and made the extortion call.
The accused trio have been booked under sections 384 (extortion), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 34 (Act done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at the Dugri police station.
