India News | 2 Held for Trying to Extort Rs 1 Cr from Delhi Man

New Delhi, Sep 16 (PTI) A gym owner has been arrested for allegedly trying to extort Rs 1 crore from his Delhi-based relative in the name of jailed gangster Neeraj Bawana, police said on Friday.

The gym owner's associate has also been arrested, they said.

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The accused have been identified as Pankaj (25) and Sashi alias Rahul (25), both residents of Rohtak district in Haryana, they said.

Pankaj owns a gym and was under debt burden since the Covid lockdown following which he decided to extort money from his relative, police said, adding that a case was registered in this connection on August 24.

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The complainant alleged that he was receiving threat-cum-extortion calls from various international numbers and the caller had been demanding Rs 1 crore in the name of jailed gangster Neeraj Bawana, police said.

The complainant also received calls from two Indian numbers, they said.

The police found that two mobile phones were snatched from two different places by the accused, a senior police officer said.

After identifying Pankaj on September 8, the police conducted a raid on Monday morning and nabbed him, the officer said.

The accused disclosed that he owned a gym in Haryana's Kalanaur. During Covid lockdown, he incurred huge losses and had a debt of Rs 90 lakh, police said.

Pankah, along with his accomplice Sashi and Sanju, conspired to extort money from one of his relatives who hails from a well-to-do family in Delhi, by threatening people using the name of Neeraj Bhawana, the officer said.

Initially, Pankaj installed an application -- global voice call -- on his phone and called his relative demanding Rs 1 crore. Later, the accused snatched a phone from a person in Gurugram and made the extortion call, police said.

When the complainant did not give money, they snatched one more phone called him again to demand money, the officer said.

Based on Pankaj's disclosure, Sashi was also arrested, police said, adding that efforts are on to nab Sanju.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)