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.
Farmers stated that they have been protesting at zero point of Yamuna Expressway for the last three days for their various demands, yet they are being ignored. "The District Administration wants to forcefully end the protest, but we will not allow it to happen," they alleged. Recently, Rakesh Tikait, the national spokesperson of the Bharatiya Kisan Union, had also come to participate in this demonstration.
During the parole, he will be staying on the Dera's premises in Rajasthan. He has been lodged in Sunaria jail since 2017 after being convicted in rape and murder cases. Last year he was also released from the jail thrice for various reasons, including his plea to meet the ailing mother.
Shubham Garg, 28, who is pursuing PhD in mechanical engineering from the University of New South Wales, was stabbed multiple times on his face, chest and abdomen when he was walking along the Pacific Highway while returning to his place of residence.
The police said that they got the PCR call at around 11.15 p.m. that the flight which was coming from Moscow, and was scheduled to land at 3.20 a.m., had a bomb in it. After receiving the call all the security agencies were put on standby the whole night.
One of her daughters,the woman said, was sexually exploited by the accused seer till she attained puberty. She had admitted her daughters to SJM Kannada medium school in 2016 in third and first standards. They stayed at the mutt's residential facility.
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and his Haryana counterpart Manohar Lal Khattar on Friday failed to reach a consensus over the contentious Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) canal issue at a crucial meeting on the issue held here.
