58-yr-old held for trying to extort money from company

The arrested man was identified as Rammani Pandey of Allahabad who lived in Dilshad Colony in Delhi.

The 58-year-old kingpin of a gang who allegedly threatened the chief general manager of India Bulls, a financial services company in Udyog Vihar, Gurugram, and tried to extort ₹10 crore from him on the pretext of leaking the company’s data, was arrested on Thursday, the police said.

Rammani Pandey of Allahabad was produced before the district and sessions court on Friday and was remanded to police custody for three days (HTPhotos)

The arrested man was identified as Rammani Pandey of Allahabad who lived in Dilshad Colony in Delhi. He was produced before the district and sessions court on Friday and was remanded to police custody for three days.

The police said they had arrested one Vikas Shekhar from Delhi on June 7, who was sent to 14 days’ judicial custody, and during questioning, he had revealed the operations of the gang he belonged to and how they targeted companies and extorted money. His information was vital in the arrest of the kingpin.

Police commissioner Muhammad Akil said they had received a complaint from the chief general manager of India Bulls on June 4. A team was formed and raids were conducted at suspected locations. “We involved the cyber crime cell. We tracked mobile phone locations, and based on human and technical intelligence, the two suspects were arrested. Other members of the gang are at large and will be nabbed soon,” he said.

Ashok Sehrawat, the complainant in the case, said he had received the call on which Shekhar had threatened him, asking him to pay ₹10 crore or face dire consequences. He said he took the call lightly and ignored it initially, but Shekhar continued to call and threaten him, following which he filed the complaint. “He said he had crucial data of the company and would it leak if we did not pay him ₹10 crore. He also asked us to make the payment in two instalments of ₹5 crore each,” he said.

The complainant told the police that in the last week of April, Shekhar had called the finance department, but they did not take his calls seriously. However, when he called them repeatedly, the call was transferred to the chief general manager.

“The complainant asked him to send the details through email or WhatsApp, but he refused to do so and threatened him saying that if the company tried to reach out to the police, he would lodge complaints against the company through various government agencies, which could hamper the company’s shares in the market and its image,” said Akil.

Shekhar also told the company officials that he would share the documents and copy of complaints when they agreed to meet him and fulfil his demands, said the police.

Akil said the gang members had created false, fabricated, and forged documents and distorted reports of the company to blackmail, cheat and extort money from the company.A case under sections 384, 464, 465 and 506 of the IPC had been registered at Udyog Vihar police station on June 4.

(Update: Following the court's order on January 10th, this year, Kislev Pandey, who was a suspect in this case, has been formally acquitted. The court, after reviewing the closure report and submissions, accepted the report and closed the case against him, bringing this chapter to a conclusion.)