Extortion racket run by a woman busted, three held

The arrested included the woman and a couple, the police said, and all of them were allegedly caught red-handed while they were attempting to extort ₹5 lakh from a jeweller in northwest Delhi’s Pitampura on Sunday.

An extortion racket, allegedly run by a 43-year-old woman who posed as a Delhi Police crime branch officer to intimidate businessmen, was busted and three persons held, the police said Monday.

An extortion racket, allegedly run by a 43-year-old woman who posed as a Delhi Police crime branch officer to intimidate businessmen, was busted and three persons held (HT File (Representative Image))

The arrested included the woman and a couple, the police said, and all of them were allegedly caught red-handed while they were attempting to extort ₹5 lakh from a jeweller in northwest Delhi’s Pitampura on Sunday.

One ID card with “Police Dost” printed on the front and “press” on its rear, and another ID card with National Crime Intelligence Bureau written on it were recovered from the arrested persons, the police said.

Deputy commissioner of police (northwest) Vijayanta Arya said a case of extortion and impersonation was registered at the Subhash Place police station and the three — identified as Poonam Sethi, Deepak Kumar,33, and his wife, Jyoti, 32 — were booked.

“We are interrogating the trio to ascertain their involvement in other such cases. Sethi ran the extortion racket. She had lured the couple from Ghaziabad into the illegal business as they were unemployed and under debt. How many people the racketeers have targeted so far is also being ascertained,” Arya said.

“The racketeers threatened to book him in a case of cheating, forgery and tax evasion. They demanded ₹5 lakh to settle the matter. When the jeweller asked them for their ID cards, the trio started negotiating and offered to settle the matter for ₹1 lakh,” a police officer, associated with the case, said.

The jeweller became suspicious and informed the police. A police team reached his office and caught the three. During questioning, the trio claimed that they were from the “crime bureau” of the Delhi Police. As no such unit exists in the city police, the police asked them for their IDs.

“They produced fake IDs which they had prepared mainly for extortion purposes,” DCP Arya said.

During further interrogation, Kumar revealed that he came in Sethi’s contact through social media. Sethi allegedly offered him work to pay off his debts. Kumar convinced his wife to join the racket.

“We are interrogating the trio to identify the person who had tipped them off about the jeweller,” the officer said.