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.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Wednesday granted bail to senior Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Bikram Singh Majithia, who was in jail over for over five months for his alleged involvement in a drugs case registered in December 2021. A division Bench of Justices M.S. Ramachandra Rao and Sureshwar Thakur had reserved the order on the bail plea on July 29.
In a major breakthrough in the killing of Shaurya Chakra awardee Balwinder Singh Sandhu in 2020, Punjab Police on Tuesday arrested key accused Gurwinder Singh, a.k.a. Baba, from Tarn Taran.
Cyber Crime Portal from the complainant Baldev Singh (a head Granthi in a Gurudwara in Delhi) was received alleging that he was contacted by a person in name of providing Kirtan opportunity in marriages and other cultural occasions in various cities of United States. Following this offer, the complainant transferred Rs. 1.25 lakh in bank accounts provided by the accused person.
Deputy Inspector General, Anti-Gangster Task Force Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said the team acted on a tip off to locate the kingpin Parminder Singh, alias Pindri, who was handling the operation of Bishnoi gang in the Nangal-Ropar belt. He said 22 first information reports (FIRs), including an attempt to murder, have been registered against the gangster.
The passenger reached at terminal number 3 on August 6. He was intercepted after he had crossed the Green Channel and was approaching towards the exit gate. On thorough checking of his baggage, nothing suspicious was found.
The operation was carried out in all seven border districts of Pathankot, Gurdaspur, Batala, Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Ferozepur and Fazilka. Major focus of this operation was to keep vigil on movement of drones carrying drugs and arms, ammunition, explosives and grenades in the border areas, an official statement said.
