New Delhi, Jan 19 (PTI) Three men, including the "mastermind", have been arrested for allegedly attempting to extort Rs 20 lakh from a businessman in outernorth Delhi after threatening to shoot him in public,
similar to a recent incident in west Delhi's Paschim Vihar, an official said on Monday.
The accused were identified as Chirag Mahendru (25), a resident of Rohini Sector 15 and the alleged kingpin of the racket, Ashutosh Kumar Pandey (26), a taxi driver from Sector 16, Rohini, and Ankit Mishra (26), an accountant residing in Sector 16, Rohini, police said.
Complainant Rajesh Kumar (52), a scrap trader and resident of Sector 11, Rohini, received a call from an unknown phone number around 10:30 pm on January 15, a senior police officer said.
The caller demanded Rs 20 lakh and threatened him that he would be shot in public if the money was not paid within 24 hours.
Police said the caller continued to issue threats the next day and claimed that he would personally come to collect the money. The complainant, a heart patient, remained confined to his house and later, approached the Shahbad Dairy police station.
An FIR was registered under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). Technical surveillance was used to analyse call detail records and the IMEI of the mobile phone handset used to make the extortion calls, the officer said.
"The analysis revealed that the same handset was used with multiple mobile numbers, which were later switched off to evade detection," he added.
Further technical analysis and ground intelligence led police to Rohini, where the signal of one of the active mobile phone numbers was tracked in real time. Based on the inputs, a raid was conducted and all three accused were arrested, the officer said.
Preliminary investigation suggested that the accused used references to the Paschim Vihar shooting incident to instil fear in the victim and force him to pay the extortion amount, he said.
Police are probing whether the trio is involved in similar extortion cases. PTI SSJ RC
