Gunrunner’s ploy to extort hotelier foiled, 6 pistols seized in Gururgam

A police officer told HT that the suspects had orders, from their leader hiding abroad, to fire multiple rounds at the hotelier’s food court

The four suspects, who were earlier busted by police on Monday with six fully automatic foreign-made pistols, had received instructions from their leader abroad to terrorize a hotelier into paying crores in extortion money, officers aware of the case revealed on Thursday.

A senior police officer said that the suspects had orders from Kaushal’s brother-in-law, hiding abroad, to fire multiple rounds at the hotelier’s food court in Neemrana, Rajasthan, and leave a letter demanding extortion money. (File Photo)

The hotelier owns several restaurants and food courts along the Delhi-Jaipur highway and other areas in the National Capital Region, said officers aware of the case. The suspects are believed to be linked to gangster Kaushal, currently in Bhondsi jail, Gurugram, they added.

According to police, the arrested suspects include Deepak Kumar, 25, of Kasola Rewari, Nagendra Singh Neemwal, 30, of Sector 8, Sahil Kumar, 21, of Jacobpura in Sector 12, and Dharmender Kumar, 31, of Rojka Meo in Nuh. They were apprehended near the government college in Sector 9 early Monday morning by police, who seized six fully-automatic foreign-made pistols worth approximately ₹60 lakh, 11 magazines, 102 live cartridges, two mobile phones, and an Hyundai i20 car from them.

A senior police officer said that the suspects had orders from Kaushal’s brother-in-law, hiding abroad, to fire multiple rounds at the hotelier’s food court in Neemrana, Rajasthan, and leave a letter demanding extortion money. They were explicitly instructed not to act within Haryana.

“The arms and ammunition consignments were supplied to the supects in two parts on Ropar Road at Korali in Punjab and Sagar in Madhya Pradesh almost a month back and were to be returned when work was accomplished,” he said. The origin of the smuggled arms and ammunition will be clearer once the supplier is apprehended, police said previously.

“The gangster’s brother-in-law maintained contact with Nagender and Dharmender via WhatsApp, using foreign numbers,” the senior officer added. Investigators disclosed that Gurugram crime branch teams will conduct raids in Punjab and Madhya Pradesh to apprehend the arms suppliers. The suspects did not know the suppliers personally and coordinated through simultaneous phone calls with the gangster’s brother-in-law and the arms supplier.

Verification of identity was done using code words provided over the phone by the brother-in-law when both parties reached a common location, said police. Sandeep Kumar, public relations officer of the Gurugram police, stated that the investigation is ongoing, and more arrests are expected soon.