Post office clerk held for trying to extort ₹20 lakh from F’bad businessman

In his threat letters, Sharma claimed to be a member of two notorious gangs, led separately by Neeraj Bawana and Kala Jathedi-Lawrence Bishnoi. Sharma had learnt about these gangsters after watching YouTube videos on them, the police said

On noticing that a businessman had deposited ₹1 crore as fixed deposit at the Faridabad post office where he worked, a clerk allegedly posed as a member of Delhi’s notorious criminal gangs and sent threat letters to the businessman demanding ₹20 lakh.

The post office in Faridabad where the suspect 30-year-old Shyamveer Sharma worked. (HT Photo)

However, his decision to use speed post to send his third threat letter, instead of regular post as he did for the first two letters, proved to be his undoing, Faridabad police said on Tuesday after arresting the man from his home in Palwal on Friday. He was identified as 30-year-old Shyamveer Sharma.

In his threat letters, Sharma claimed to be a member of two notorious gangs, led separately by Neeraj Bawana and Kala Jathedi-Lawrence Bishnoi. Sharma had learnt about these gangsters after watching YouTube videos on them, the police said, adding that he did not know that these gangs were rivals and there was no way a man could be associated with both.

Mukesh Malhotra, deputy commissioner of police (crime), said, “Sharma didn’t know about the longstanding rivalry between the gangs led by Bawana and Jathedi-Bishnoi. This fact revealed that the extortionist was a commoner, and not a member of these notorious gangs.”

The DCP said the businessman, Devendra Kumar Gupta, 55, runs a scrap business and is a resident of Faridabad’s Housing Board Colony Sector 22. In March this year, he visited the post office in Faridabad’s Sector 22 to open a fixed deposit of ₹1 crore, said Malhotra.

“Sharma knew of the fixed deposit and believed that the businessman had a large paying capacity. He decided to extort ₹20 lakh from him using the names of notorious gangsters,” Malhotra said.

Police said he sent two separate threat letters using regular post, and these were delivered to Gupta on March 14. “The letters threatened Gupta and his family with bodily harm and even death if he did not pay the sender ₹20 lakh, but Gupta decided not to pay and sought police’s help. We registered a case and began investigating,” said Malhotra.

Sharma then allegedly sent a third letter, using speed post, on July 29. To mislead investigators, he allegedly replaced the speed post barcode on the threat letter with that of a letter that had arrived from Delhi’s Moti Bagh. This had the police chasing futile leads in Moti Bagh, till they realised that barcode sticker had been tampered with.

“A closer analysis of the threat letter revealed that the barcode sticker of the Faridabad post office hadn’t fully come off. That led us to the Faridabad post office where we began scanning the CCTV footage for clues,” said Sethi Malik, in-charge Sector 30 crime unit.

The footage allegedly revealed Sharma changing the stickers, and he became the prime suspect. His interrogation had him admitting to the crime and he was later arrested, police said.