Punjab Police bust extortion racket linked to gangster Lawrence Bishnoi
Darpan News Desk IANS, 31 May, 2023 12:59 PM
Chandigarh, May 31 (IANS) Punjab Police have busted an extortion racket, backed by gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, with the arrest of its three operatives, said Director General of Police (DGP) Punjab Gaurav Yadav here on Wednesday.
Those arrested have been identified as Rohit Bharadwaj of Zirkapur and Mohit Bharadwaj and Arjun Thakur, both of Chandigarh.
DGP Yadav said following a detailed investigation and intelligence-gathering in this case, the State Special Operation Cell of Mohali had initiated coordinated action which led to the arrest of these three persons found involved in operating an extortion racket.
Police have also recovered cash amounting to Rs 14.78 lakh from the possession of Rohit Bhardwaj and other incriminating evidence from the mobile phones recovered from accused persons.
Divulging details about modus-operandi, the DGP said the arrested persons were using online gambling platform 'Diamond Exchange' to lure victims by convincing them to join online gaming and betting on a nominal fee to gain great profits.
"After winning some rewards, the victim would start to lose money in betting and then accused persons would offer money on credit starting from lakhs," he said, adding once the victim avail the credit, the accused used to charge hefty interest on the amount, which could sometimes accumulated to crores of rupees.
DGP Yadav said when the victim showed unwillingness to return the money, the offenders would make threatening calls to them through their gangster associates sitting in jails and abroad.
During investigation, the police verified various payment gateways and the bank accounts to which the money was transferred, he said, adding proceedings to freeze the bank accounts linked to the activities of the accused have been initiated.
Investigations are on to identify the owner of the fraudulent website and location from where they are operating them, he added.
SHE teams, a division of Telangana Police for enhanced safety and security of women, caught these men red-handed while misbehaving with women by touching them inappropriately, stalking them and taking their pictures near Ganesh pandals across the city.
The court awarded jail term to Jitendra Kumar Jatav (candidate) and Gulab Singh Patel (solver) besides slapping a fine of Rs 13,100 on each of them. The CBI had registered the case on August 4, 2015 in compliance of the order of the Supreme Court. The FIR was registered against the accused and others at Dehat police station in Bhind on charges of impersonation.
The threat came four days after the DAV Public School got a similar threat, which later proved to be a prank made by three students of the school. A message uploaded on social media on Monday evening read that there would be a blast in Spring Dale School on September 16 .
The official said that the group of 23 Sudanese gathered and attempted to clear the green channel by creating ruckus and divert attention of the customs officers. "The Sudanese passengers deliberately created a ruckus at customs arrival area through visible signs and acts of aggression including shouting at the officers and even indulging in physical bouts," the official said.
The NIA had been mulling action against big gangsters like Bishnoi, Kapil Sangwan and Neeraj Bawana and their aides. The Union Home Ministry had asked the NIA to uproot their entire network as they were involved in targeted killings and were acting like terrorists.
The Chief Minister said investigation into the case was almost completed.. Phogat had come to Goa on August 22 and was staying at a hotel in Anjuna. She felt uneasy that night and the next morning, she was taken to the St. Anthony's hospital where she was declared brought dead.
