Four men held for extortion bid

Four youths, including a B.com student, were arrested on Tuesday for allegedly making extortion calls to a city-based property dealer. Police have also recovered a country-made gun, two mobile phones and 85 SIM cards from their possession.

Four youths, including a B.com student, were arrested on Tuesday for allegedly making extortion calls to a city-based property dealer. Police have also recovered a country-made gun, two mobile phones and 85 SIM cards from their possession.

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The arrested persons have been identified as Mukesh Chauhan, Manoj Chauhan, Shivkant Verma and Minku Sharma.

They were arrested with the help of electronic surveillance from Faridabad flyover near Noida-Greater Noida Expressway.

According to the police, the gang had called Wazidpur resident Charan Singh, the property dealer, demanding R10 lakh as extortion. Mukesh, 22-year-old B.com student, was the master mind.

The police said that Mukesh had an affair with a girl and wanted to settle with her in Mumbai.

So he, along with his other friends, planned to extort money from businessmen. Shivkant, who works at a retail store, used to help the gang in getting SIM cards on fake documents.

“On May 23, we got a complaint from Charan Singh about the extortion call. An FIR was registered at the Phase-II police station. We started tracking the number and found it to be issued on fake identity. Later, the accused were arrested,” said Raj Kumar Mishra, deputy superintendent of police.

“We will take action against telecom companies for issuing SIM cards without verification. We are yet to ascertain if the gang had extorted money from other businessmen,” said DSP Mishra.