Two held for making extortion calls to Congress MLA

Preet Pal Sangwan, assistant commissioner of police (crime), said that they received a complaint following which a case was registered at the DLF Phase 2 police station under Section 384 (extortion) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC)

Police on Sunday arrested two suspects from Jhajjar for allegedly trying to extort ₹1 lakh from a Congress member of legislative assembly (MLA) from Badli, who had also alleged that he received a threat call from a gangster from an international number on Friday.

Two held for making extortion calls to Congress MLA

Police said that it was the second time that MLA Kuldeep Vats had received threats from unidentified international numbers.

Earlier on July 10, police booked five unidentified men for allegedly barging into Vat’s house in Pataudi. The suspects also allegedly threatened to kill him and assaulted his cook.

Preet Pal Sangwan, assistant commissioner of police (crime), said that they received a complaint following which a case was registered at the DLF Phase 2 police station under Section 384 (extortion) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

“We formed teams and started conducting an investigation based on technical and human intelligence. A task was given to the crime unit of Sector 31 who traced the caller to Silana village in Jhajjar,” ACP Sangwan said.

ACP Sangwan added that a team led by inspector Anand Kumar conducted a raid in Silana village and arrested the two suspects.

The two suspects have been identified as Manjeet Kumar (22), and Vikram Singh (22), both residents of Silana.

Police said during primary interrogation, Kumar revealed that Singh, who happens to be his closest friend, had provided him with the mobile number of the MLA, following which he had made several extortion calls.

ACP Sangwan said on August 25, three calls from international mobile numbers were received by the MLA. “Out of these three calls, only one was attended by the victim. The caller demanded ₹1 lakh per month from the Vats. During investigation, it was found that voice over internet protocol (VoIP) calls were made by using an Android application. Also, it was revealed that Kumar was using a spoof application called IndyCall in his phone due to which an international mobile number was getting displayed,” he said.