Man makes extortion calls seeking ₹50 L from sweet shop owner, booked

Police booked an unidentified person on Sunday for allegedly making extortion calls to a Delhi resident, who owns a sweet shop in Chandu village on the outskirts of Gurugram, on April 4

Police booked an unidentified person on Sunday for allegedly making extortion calls to a Delhi resident, who owns a sweet shop in Chandu village on the outskirts of Gurugram, on April 4. The suspect, identified as Sagar, had demanded ₹50 lakh from the shop owner — Anil Chillar — as protection money.

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The suspect is “the brother of gangster Akku” from Sardana village.

KK Rao, commissioner of police, said that Chillar, who lives in Dwarka, received the extortion calls around 4.30 pm on April 4. “The suspect called Chillar and asked him to share his WhatsApp number. When Chillar did not show any interest, Sagar gave him life threats. He also threatened that he would harm Chillar’s family members if he approached the police... The suspect had generated an international phone number through the Internet to make WhatsApp calls to Chillar... We are suspecting that gangster Kaushal, who has been lodged in Hisar jail for the past few months, is also involved in this case. He was booked in similar cases in the past,” Rao said, adding that police are trying to track the location of the phone number that was used to make the calls.

During preliminary investigation, it was found that the number was not issued in India, Rao added.

Police said that they received a complaint from Chillar on Saturday. Chillar alleged that he received two WhatsApp calls from an unknown caller, who introduced himself as the brother of gangster Akku, on Saturday. The first phone call was for 28 seconds. Chillar said that he was busy when he received the first call, and he thought someone was pulling a trick on him. But Sagar kept calling him. “The caller said that I’m making good money as my shop has been running well, and he would call me again to let me know where to deliver the ‘protection money’,” Chillar told the police.

A case was registered under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 294 (obscene acts), 386 (extortion by putting a person in fear of death or grievous hurt), and 506 (criminal intimidation) at the Rajendra Park police station. Police are also looking into the involvement of insiders and have questioned the staff of the sweet shop.

Members affiliated with notorious gangster Kaushal had been involved in several past cases of extortion involving traders and businessmen, according to the police. Police had arrested the live-in partner and close aides of Kaushal in 2020, for their alleged involvement in extortion cases in Gurugram and Delhi-NCR. They received several complaints from traders and businessmen, who complained that Kaushal had been threatening them, and demanding protection money.

According to the police, Kaushal used to receive the money collected by his gang members through hawala transactions.