Four held for trying to extort Rs 1 crore

An ex-factory worker and three of his associates were arrested for their alleged involvement in trying to extort Rs 1 crore from a businessman, based on a Bollywood-inspired bid to become rich overnight, police said on Monday.

An ex-factory worker and three of his associates were arrested for their alleged involvement in trying to extort Rs 1 crore from a businessman, based on a Bollywood-inspired bid to become rich overnight, police said on Monday.

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Identified as Vijay Kumar, an ex-employee of the victim and the key conspirator, the accused had roped in his associates Manoj Kumar, Faisal Hassan and Dinesh Kumar to extort money from northwest Delhi-based businessman Sanjeev Kanwar, said P Karunakaran, DCP (northwest).

"On April 6, Kanwar reported that he had received an extortion call on the previous day with the caller demanding R1 crore and threatening to kill him if he failed to pay up," said DCP Karunakaran. According to police, when Kanwar expressed his inability to make the payment the next day, he was told that he would be killed by 3pm the following day.

Police said a case was registered and details about people employed at his factory and home were obtained. Technical surveillance was mounted and that led a police team to raid Dinesh's home. The gang had taken pains to travel all the way to the outskirts of Delhi.