Business partner, 2 others try to extort IT firm owner, held

Gurgaon: Three men have been arrested for allegedly trying to extort Rs 10 lakh from the owner of a city-based software consultancy. One of the complainants’ business acquaintances, who is among those arrested, was the mastermind of the crime, police said. The three were produced in a city court on Friday and sent to judicial custody.
The accused have been identified as Narender alias Mota and Mandeep, residents of Jhajjar, and Rupender alias Raju, a resident of Dhana village. The main accused, Narender, creates websites for clients and had worked with the complainant, Palam Vihar resident Anuj Gupta, in the past.

Anuj approached Palam Vihar police on Wednesday and filed a complaint alleging that unidentified persons had been calling him up since April 4 demanding Rs 10 lakh. The callers threatened him of dire consequences if he failed to pay up, Anuj said.

An FIR was registered against the accused under Section 384 (punishment for extortion) the same day and the case was handed to the Sector 17 crime unit, led by inspector Narender Chauhan. The caller’s mobile number was put on surveillance, and the trio was nabbed in Palam Vihar late on Thursday night when they had come to the area for some work.

The mobile phone used to make the extortion calls was also recovered.

On interrogation, Narender revealed that he had come in contact with Anuj during professional assignments. When he discovered Anuj’s financial status, he hatched a plan to extort money from him and roped in two of his friends too.

“I knew he was financially well-off and thus decided to threaten him. We were looking for easy money and I knew he could easily cough up Rs 10 lakh,” Narender said.

“We have recovered the mobile phone and SIM which was used by the accused to make the threat calls. All three were produced in a city court on Friday, which sent them to judicial custody,” said inspector Narender Chauhan, head of Sector 17 crime unit.