4 arrested for Rs 50 lakh extortion bid on bizman

GURUGRAM: Four people have been arrested by the crime branch of Gurugram police for allegedly demanding Rs 50 lakh from a Farrukhnagar-based businessman as extortion money.
The accused have been identified as Rahul, Vijay alias Pankaj and Munnu, residents of Meerut in Utter Pradesh, and Paramjeet, a resident of Judola, Gurugram. The main accused, gangster Sandeep Duma, is still at large.

Crime branch officers said Munna, Rahul and Vijay were held during a raid on Sunday. During interrogation, they revealed information about Paramjeet, after which he too was nabbed the same day.

They were produced in a city court and sent to three-day remand for questioning on Monday.

On April 25, Radheshyam, the owner of a sweet shop and restaurant in Farrukhnagar, had approached the police and filed a complaint stating that he received an extortion call demanding Rs 50 lakh from an unidentified number. He had also mentioned in his complaint that a few unidentified men open fired at his eatery on April 17.

“The caller asked for me and said he was Sandeep, a resident of Duma village. He demanded Rs 50 lakh and said if I failed to pay the amount, he would kill me. He also asked for the time and place of payment and threatened to kill my sons and brothers,” Radheshyam said in his complaint.

An FIR under sections 387 (extortion) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC was registered at Farrukhnagar police station, and the businessman and his family were provided police protection.

Cops are now questioning the accused to recover the vehicle and arms used in the crime. “The accused revealed that they had opened fire in front of Radhe Sweets on April 17. On the direction of Sandeep Duma, they made a phone call to the shop’s owner, Radheshyam, seeking extortion money of Rs 50 lakh, on April 24,” said Suresh Kumar, in-charge of crime branch.