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On October 13, Bathinda police claimed to have busted a gang involved in extortion with the arrest of three men along with a .32-bore pistol and four cartridges.
The police said Gurdit Singh, Sunil Kumar, and Rohit Kumar, all residents of Faridkot, were close to Canada-based gangster Goldy Brar and worked for Malaysia-based gangster Vicky.
According to the police, the accused threw petrol bottle bombs at the liquor vends related to Deep Malhotra, former Faridkot MLA considered close to the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), in Kotkapura and Faridkot at the instructions of Vicky.
The police claimed the accused threw the bombs after their extortion demand was not met. The victim, who received an alleged threat call, had not lodged a complaint with the police. However, the police were under pressure due to the high-profile nature of the case.
Often victims don’t lodge a complaint after receiving such extortion calls out of fear, however, there are few exceptions which show that threat calls to extort money are made very frequently.
These extortion calls were at the centre of speeches made during the protest held in Bathinda on Sunday to protest the killing of a local shopkeeper Harjinder Singh Johal, who was shot dead outside his shop in broad daylight.
Speaking during the protest, murdered Punjabi Singer Sidhu Moosewala’s father Balkaur Singh also raised the issue. “Gangster Lawrence Bishnoi is doing business of Rs 5 crore per month from jails. It is what the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has said in its probe available on the website. How can someone run such a big nexus from jail?” he asked Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann.
The police are yet to make a statement about the motive behind the murder of Johal. However, the modus operandi behind his murder is not different from the one used to threaten victims of extortion rackets.
There has been a series of such threat calls this year. Here’s a look at them:
January 14
Two men fired at a doctor inside his clinic in Bathinda’s Talwandi Sabo. A group of men entered the clinic of Dr Dinesh Bansal and fired the shots to extort Rs 3 lakh from him.
In this case, the police arrested seven suspects who had links with Manpreet Manna, an accused in Sidhu Moosewala’s murder case. One of the suspects was injured during a gunfight with the police.
February 15
In another case reported from Bathinda’s Sangat Mandi, gangster Arsh Dalla allegedly demanded a ransom of Rs 20 lakh from a trader. Dalla allegedly called Harpreet Singh, a resident of Pakka Kalan village, and demanded the ransom.
The police filed a case against Dalla under sections 387, 506, and 120B at the Sangat police station.
Before this, a horse trader had also received a call demanding Rs 25 lakh.
March 7
Gangster Amana, who is lodged in Nabha jail, allegedly called a Bathinda farmer to extort money from him. To intimidate the farmer, the gangster also sent his goons to his house to record a video. Later, he sent a video from the jail to the farmer’s mobile phone.
Farmer lodged a written complaint with Bathinda’s senior superintendent of police.
A video of gangster Aamna in which he can be seen coming out of his jail barrack in movie style was circulated on social media exposing easy access of criminals to phones in jails.
July 28
Gunshots were fired at a jewellery shop in the main market of Maur in Bathinda. Before the shots were fired, the jeweller had received a ransom demand of Rs 25 lakh over the phone from a gang, warning him not to report the call.
After this incident, the police appealed to shopkeepers not to write their phone numbers on boards placed outside their shops as other jewellers in town had also alleged such ransom calls. A brother of the jeweller left for Canada along with his family after the incident.
August 8
Two gangsters lodged at Faridkot jail made a call to demand money from a shopkeeper in Bhuchcho Mandi after which the Nathana police had registered a case against Khan Malerkotla and Tarri Raikhana.
September 3
In a press conference, Rahul Bhardwaj, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Maur, had said businessman Rahul Bajaj lodged a complaint with the police, saying Jaspreet Singh from Kotshamir, also known as Jassu, had been demanding money from him for nearly two years.
To facilitate the payment, Jaspreet Singh even provided Bajaj, a wholesale clothing businessman, with his mobile phone’s barcode details for online payment via WhatsApp.
‘Better to pay than getting killed’
While speaking to The Indian Express, a trader from Maur said, “Many families have paid the extortion money as making a complaint to the police is no assurance that gangsters would stop. Such calls are being made from jails. So any wise man won’t expect the administration to provide cover from such rackets which are being operated from jails, which should be the last place on earth to make such calls.
“The brother of a jeweller in Maur has left the country with his family. The jeweller is now under police protection but his social life has been badly affected. What can we do about it?”
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On whether the business community in Bathinda is getting extortion calls very frequently, Bathinda SSP Gulneet Singh Khurana said, “Sometimes such complaints are on the rise and at others, there aren’t many”.
“We immediately take action whenever anyone approaches us with a complaint of extortion. I can’t comment on allegations about extortion calls in which nobody has complained. But we act swiftly whenever we receive complaints,” added Khurana.
On the jails being used to make the calls, he said, “We inform the authorities concerned whenever any link is found. But the jail department is not under us.”
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