Marketing executive gets extortion call for Rs 2 crore

Surat: A 30-year-old marketing executive with a construction firm spent several sleepless nights after he started receiving extortion calls over phone asking for Rs 2 crore. The caller claimed to be a member of underworld don Ravi Pujari’s gang.
The executive tried his best to explain the caller that he was not a builder and it won’t be possible for him to pay such a huge amount. Ultimately, he approached police and preliminary investigation revealed that his number reached the caller from an advertisement hoarding of an upcoming project put up by his employer’s firm.

Sumit Chaudhary (name changed) told police that he started receiving threat calls from a person who even described the details of real estate firm where he was employed. Chaudhary initially did not take it seriously and considered it a prank by some friend. But repeated calls with serious threats made him believe that the calls are from someone linked with the underworld.

Chaudhary explained the caller over phone that he is not the owner and just an employee, but he refused to believe and threatened to kill him if he failed to pay.

After few calls Chaudhary informed his employer and later they approached police. They refused to lodge a complaint fearing those issuing the threats. However, police started preliminary inquiry and it was found that Chaudhary’s number was put up on an advertisement banner of the firm about their upcoming project.

“Mobile number of the firm’s owner and the employee who received threat are of same series and almost similar with difference of couple of digits. It seems that the caller received the number through their local contacts who made a mistake in sharing the number,” said a senior police official on condition of anonymity.

“The calls were made from foreign number and it is believed that the calls were from Ravi Pujari gang. However, in absence of any complaint we could not investigate the case further but we are keeping eye on such activity,” said the officer.