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 National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Wednesday declared a cash reward of Rs 15 lakh on the head of Canada-based terrorist Lakhbir Singh Sandhu alias Landa, a prime accused in connection with the rocket launcher attack on Punjab Police Intelligence Headquarters in Mohali in May last year.
The personal search of the passenger resulted in recovery of two strips wrapped with white adhesive tape containing brown coloured paste in a transparent packing. He was hiding it in his underwear. After the extraction procedure four uneven rectangular shaped gold pieces collectively weighing 1760 grams worth Rs 90,29,680 were recovered.
The Telangana government has constructed small dams in villages for conserving the groundwater across the state, and he said as a result of this, the groundwater level has increased up to two metres in the villages.
The Chief Minister envisioned that the summit will go a long way in ensuring holistic industrial development of the state to propel it into the orbit of high growth trajectory. He asked Invest Punjab to make optimum use of this healthy platform to project Punjab as the preferred investment destination among the domestic and global investors.
Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) President Sukhbir Badal on Wednesday said it was condemnable that Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann was asserting that the Governor could not ask him any questions because he was "selected" and not "elected", but was allowing AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal to run the affairs of Punjab.
An aide of jailed gangster Jagdeep Singh, alias Jaggu Bhagwanpuria, was held with 1 kg heroin and Rs 27 lakh drug money in raids across the state at suspected hideouts of persons linked with him, Director General of Police Gaurav Yadav said on Wednesday.
