Three held for extortion bid on iron trader in Greater Noida

Greater Noida: Three men were arrested on Tuesday for allegedly attempting to extort Rs 20 lakh from a Dadri-based iron trader. The main accused, Sirajuddin (35) knew the victim as he too used to trade in iron. His nephew Javed (19) and Kishan Pal, a mobile SIM card shop owner, were also arrested.
Sirajuddin and Javed made around four-five calls to the businessman over five days claiming to be calling on the behalf of local strongman Mukesh Bhati. Javed used to make the calls at the behest of his uncle using three SIM cards, which they bought from Kishan Pal (35). Sushil Kumar (45) who resides in Dadri first received a call on December 13 from Javed, police said.

Nishank Sharma, Dadri circle officer, said, "Sushil did not take the call seriously. The next day Javed called again but Sushil but did not answer. He made two-three calls in the following days but got no response. However, on Sunday, Sushil again got a call from Javed wherein he threatened to kill him if he did not pay up Rs 20 lakh. Sushil panicked and informed the police."

An FIR was lodged under IPC sections 386 (extortion) and 506 (criminal intimidation) and two persons - Amit Kumar (26) and Deepak (20) -were detained on the basis of the surveillance.

According to police, the three numbers from which calls were made were traced to Dauji ka mandir in Jewar.

"One of the SIM cards used was issued under one Amit Kumar of Kanarsi village and was activated by Deepak who owns a mobile shop in the same village. Deepak told police that he had handed over the SIM cards to another youth from Sabota in Jewar as he could not activate them properly. Police connected the dots using mobile surveillance and arrested Javed and Sirajuddin," Sharma added.

Police said Pal issued the SIM cards for Rs 150-200 without taking the mandatory KYC forms.