Bizman keeps mum for yrs, pays lakhs to blackmailers

Ludhiana: A Ludhiana businessman paid a heavy price for keeping mum for years about his blackmailers, who had extorted lakhs of rupees from him during this period. Finally, he broke his silence and approached the police when he faced the threat of being implicated in a false rape case.
The police on Monday booked two couples and their accomplice for blackmailing and extorting money from Jagroop Singh, a businessman dealing in fastener products from Janta Nagar. He had been paying his blackmailers since 2014. Even after getting huge sums of money, the accused had never stopped harassing him and demanding more money.

Acting on the complaint of Jagroop, police lodged an FIR against Harjot Singh, his wife Rupinder Kaur, brother Prabhjot Singh, Prabhjot’s wife Gaganpreet Kaur (all residents of New Shimlapuri) and their accomplice Prabhjot Singh Bhui of Guru Angad Dev Nagar.
In his complaint lodged on March 10, Jagroop said Bhui had been his worker in 2009. Through Bhui, he had come in contact with Harjot and his brother Prabhjot who had claimed to have links with high-ranked officials and politicians. Impressed with the brothers, he had developed a special bond with them.
“But in 2014, the brother duo came to his office and robbed him of Rs 2 lakh at gunpoint. The accused threatened him of dire consequences if he lodged a police complaint. Out of fear, he did not inform the police. But his silence only emboldened the accused, who kept blackmailing and extorting money from him,” police said while citing the FIR.
Jagroor claimed that some time ago, the brothers along with Bhui and Harjot’s wife Rupinder reached his office and threatened to implicate him in a rape case. This time, the accused took Rs 4 lakh from him. But as they kept demanding more money, Jagroop finally lodged a complaint with the police.
Thereafter, an inquiry was marked to additional deputy commissioner of police-II Balwinder Singh Randhawa in this matter. During the probe, the ADCP found that Bhui had got her cousin a job in Jagroop’s office. Jagroop and Bhui’s cousin had developed physical relationship which continued for at least two years. Jagroop used to spend a lot of money on Bhui’s cousin. When Bhui came to know about it, he shared the information with Prabhjot and Harjot who too were relatives of Bhui and his cousin. Thereafter, they hatched a conspiracy to blackmail Jagroop and extort money from him. The accused extorted lakhs of rupees from Jagroop on the pretext of disclosing his relations with Bhui’s cousin in 2014, 2016, 2017 and 2020.
Following the inquiry, a case under Sections 384 (Extortion), 120-B (Criminal conspiracy), 506 (Criminal intimidation) of the IPC and relevant sections of Arms Act has been lodged against the accused at Shimlapuri police station. Importantly, Jagroop had lodged a complaint with division number 6 police, however no action was taken and therefore he had requested to get the case inquired from a different police station.