THE CITY police claimed to have busted a gang of extortionists that extracted money from borrowers with the use of muscle power. A country-made revolver, five live cartridges and sharp-edged weapons, including swords were recovered from the gang members on Thursday.
SP Anant Kumar Singh said the gang members had camped at the house of the complainant, Vikas Urmalia, a resident of Laharpur near Misrod and almost confined him at the house in order to extract the money though he had already paid more than four times the original amount he had borrowed.
The accused, Javed, 25, resident of Ambedkar Nagar, Vikram Singh alias Manu, 23, Rituraj, resident of Shivpuri, Mukhes Yadav and Ashutosh were arrested for extortion. Three of the eight-member gang are still absconding.
Police said Urmalia, 40, an LIC field officer, had borrowed some Rs 1.10 lakh from one, Tinu Dubey, of Arera Colony. Surprisingly, the accused had been camping at Urmalia’s house for almost a month and had made life difficult for the family as at least one of the gang members remained at their house all hours.
This was despite the fact that Urmalia had reportedly paid almost Rs 5 lakh against the loan. Even when Urmalia went out, one of them accompanied him. The complainant somehow managed to inform the top police officers and a joint police team caught the gang members. The accused allegedly misbehaved with the victim’s family members, including women members also.
The gang had extorted money from almost 30 persons besides involvement in other criminal cases. A register recovered from them has names of 38 persons written in it and a recovery of around Rs 28 lakh mentioned in it.
{{/usCountry}}The gang had extorted money from almost 30 persons besides involvement in other criminal cases. A register recovered from them has names of 38 persons written in it and a recovery of around Rs 28 lakh mentioned in it.
{{/usCountry}}The gang was active for almost 2-1/2 years. Apart from Bhopal, the gang reportedly spread its activities in Sagar, Vidisha and Indore. Mostly, the traders hired the gang that charged 10% of the amount of recovery. Often they entered the house of borrower at night and either forced the person to sign on cheques at gunpoint or took away gold jewellery, cash etc. Sometimes, the gang took money from both the sides. The accused are being interrogated.