The SSP also added that the police were expecting more disclosures from the arrested accused which they hoped helped them in arresting more people involved in the racket.A day after three members of the notorious Bhupi Rana gang were nabbed from a hotel in Zirakpur after a shootout, Mohali police on Monday claimed that they had received a bunch of complaints from businessmen and hotel owners of the district regarding extortion calls made by the gang.
Senior police officials said that at present all the three arrested men were being questioned, and they expected their interrogation to reveal more details about the extortion racket which they suspect was being run by some notorious criminals lodged in various jails.
The district police and Anti-Gangster Task Force (AGTF) arrested three alleged members of Bhupi Rana gang after the encounter on Sunday night. A policeman was injured in the incident while a criminal too was hit. The encounter occurred at Furniture Market, Baltana, near a hotel where the criminals were holed up.
The police so far have identified the arrested men as Ranvir Singh alias Rania, Vishal alias Vikrant and Ashish alias Aman, all residents of Barwala in Panchkula district.
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Mohali Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Vivek Sheel Soni said that the encounter had happened when a police team got wind of the criminals holed up at hotel Relax Inn and had gone to arrest them.
Soni said that the extortion racket was operational for the several months in Mohali, but after search operations launched recently, people started calling up the police control room and giving information about extortion calls they were receiving.
Asked about the amount the criminals demanded from hotel owner, the SSP said that the demands varied and it ranged from anything between Rs 20,000 to Rs 40,000.
The SSP also added that the police were expecting more disclosures from the arrested accused which they hoped helped them in arresting more people involved in the racket.
About Sunday night’s shootout, Soni said that the police got a tipoff that aides of Ankit Rana, a Haryana-based notorious criminal, was demanding extortion money from some hotel owners in Zirakpur and had sent some men to collect money from a hotel in Baltana.
Police, Soni said, cordoned off the area and asked the men at hotel Relax Inn to surrender. However, the suspects opened fire at the police party and injured a sub-inspector forcing the police team to retaliate.
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