Vadodara, Aug 11 (IANS) Punjab Police has arrested a man for allegedly making extortion calls to doctors and industrialists in the name of Lawrence Bishnoi and Goldy Brar gang, from this district of Gujarat.
The man arrested on Wednesday night, hailed from Bihar and was camping in the Chani area of the Vadodara city for the last 15 days.
According to the Deputy Commissioner of Police from Punjab: "Extornist Sharif, alias Mazaralam Shaikh, had called up an Amritsar-based doctor demanding Rs 5 lakh as ransom. After introducing himself as Vicky Brar and a member of Lawrence Bishnoi and Goldy Brar, he had threatened to kill the doctor if the ransom money was not transferred into his account."
The calls were being made from a foreign sim number using a banned app, but with technical surveillance, the police tracked him down to Vadodara. Simultaneously, another team had carried out a search operation in Bihar, from where the police picked up two more accused associated with Sharif.
Police too were surprised to find that the gang was operating 150 bank accounts in Bihar.
According to the Punjab Police records, two doctors had registered an extortion call complaint with the Sardar police station in Amritsar. In the first case, one Dr Rajnish Kumar had received an extortion call demanding Rs 6 lakh on July 29, and the caller had shared his SBI bank account number to transfer money.
The other complaint was filed by Dr Manan Anand alleging that the extortionist had demanded Rs five lakh from a Canada number.
External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson, during his weekly briefing, said that the ministry had sensitised all its missions and posts abroad regarding the fugitive god man.
The four accused in the rape and murder of a woman veterinarian were gunned down in an early morning exchange of fire, after two of the accused snatched pistols from the police party who had brought them to the scene of crime for collection of further evidence.
"I have now applied for the passport. I am an Indian and it hurts me that I am asked to prove that every time. My wife, my children are Indian. I pay my taxes here and my life is here," he said.
