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.
Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) President Sukhbir Badal on Friday accused the AAP government in Punjab of trying to muzzle the voice of media ever since it assumed power. "The government has registered false cases against journalists besides banning web channels and even stopping advertisements to publications which refused to relay its propaganda," he said.
Gandhi's trip is impelled "by a desire to raise our concern about democracy", said Sam Pitroda, a longtime US-based associate of the Gandhis and someone closely associated with the planning and execution of the Congress leader's visit.
Notorious gangster Lawrence Bishnoi was transferred from Sabarmati Jail in Gujarat to Delhi's Mandoli Prison in the early hours of Thursday. The decision to lodge Bishnoi to Mandoli jail was taken due to security concerns, a senior prison official said.
Speaking at annual meeting of the Kerala Police Association, Sethuraman said: "The use of drugs is prevalent among the children of police officials at all levels. Two children of a Superintendent of Police are victims of drug abuse and this affected his family life too. There has to be a serious check to prevent this rampant drug abuse, which is alarming."
To curb the menace of issuing SIM cards on fake identities, a major security threat, the Punjab Police have got blocked over 1.8 lakh SIM cards activated using fake identities and forged documents, Director General of Police Gaurav Yadav said on Thursday. In one case 500 SIM cards have been issued with the same photograph but in different names by forging documents.
Pachauri had filed a contempt of court petition in February 2016, alleging several media houses for deliberately and contemptuously not following the court's orders restricting them from publishing sexual harassment claims against him. The affidavit further read that Goswami is a respectable citizen of the country, who abides by the law and holds all courts in high esteem.
