New Delhi, May 12 (PTI) The Delhi Police Crime Branch has busted three international extortion modules operated by multiple gangs, including those led by Lawrence Bishnoi and Kala Jathedi, and apprehended eight people, along with six firearms, officials said on Friday.

These gangs were contacting juveniles and youngsters through social media and recruiting them to extort money from people, Special Commissioner of Police (Crime) Ravindra Singh Yadav said, adding these recruits were given a list of targets to threaten and extort money from.

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The money extorted by them was then transferred through hawala channels to the gang leaders like Lawrence Bishnoi, who operate from abroad, the officer said.

Of the eight nabbed by police, three accused, including two juveniles, had fired outside a house in the Hari Nagar Ashram area on April 23.

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In this case, their target was a person who had been threatened repeatedly over the phone from unknown international numbers and told to pay Rs 2 crore, the officer said, adding the caller identified himself as gangster Lawrence Bishnoi's brother Anmol.

As part of the investigation, CCTV footage was analysed, and the identity of the shooters was established. A trap was laid at Dhaula Kuan and the trio was apprehended, he said.

One of the accused, Haren of Gujarat's Rajkot told police that he was in contact with Anmol Bishnoi on Instagram. Anmol had asked him to work for his gang and so, he left his home and was living at the hideouts of the Bishnoi gang in Punjab, Rajasthan, and Haryana, Yadav said.

"During interrogation, the accused revealed Anmol had demanded Rs 2 crore from the target but he did not respond. Sampat Nehra, one of the leaders of the Lawrence gang, arranged the shooters for the task with the help of his recruiting agents in Rajasthan," the officer said.

"They were later told by their handler that they had fired at the wrong house," he said, adding when they returned to the locality, they were apprehended by police.

Another extortion racket was busted when two sharpshooters of the Naresh Sethi gang were apprehended. One of them was identified as Sameer (18) and the other was a juvenile, police said, adding they had targeted a property dealer.

The third module was busted with the arrest of three members of the Kala Jathedi and Lawrence Bishnoi gang from Rohini, police said. They were identified as Sunny (19), Ashu (20), and Sunny (25).

"During interrogation, it was revealed that all the accused were acting upon the directions of jailed accused Priyavart, who contacted Sunny and tasked him with eliminating his business partner. He directed Sunny to fire gunshots at an electronics showroom in his village in Delhi to extort money from its owner. In order to commit the crimes, they robbed a car from Mundka," the senior officer said.

During sustained interrogation, it was revealed that the accused came in contact with the kingpins Virender Pratap, Rohit Godara, and Goldy Brar of this syndicate. Godara and Brar had told them to collect arms and ammunition from the DDU Hospital area and Gurugram, police said.

(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)