Uttarakhand Special Task Force (STF) arrested one of the gangster Sunil Rathi’s henchmen Ajit Khokhar from Muzaffarnagar for allegedly threatening a local trader of Haridwar Ravikant Malik for attempted extortion of Rs 50 lakh. Several criminal cases including attempt to murder and extortion are registered against him in police stations of Haridwar, Muzaffarnagar and New Delhi and he was out on bail when the STF nabbed him on Tuesday evening, said Ayush Agrawal, the senior superintendent of police, STF.

He said that a case was registered on February 13 at the SIIDCUL police station in Haridwar against Rathi, who is a prisoner in the district jail, and his henchmen for allegedly making threatening WhatsApp calls and sending messages to Ravikant Malik from jail demanding Rs 50 lakh. Rathi allegedly threatened Malik that his land in the Navodaya Nagar area of SIIDCUL would be snatched if he failed to pay. Rathi’s henchmen also threatened to remove his possession of the land.  The victim also received a ransom call of Rs 50 lakh and the Rathi’s accomplices allegedly threatened to kill him and his family too. The SSP said that the case was initially being investigated by Haridwar police that arrested Rathi's henchman Sushil Gurjar (37) who had made murder threats. The case was later handed over to STF. He said that Ajit Khokhar had allegedly provided sim cards to other accomplices used to send threatening calls and messages to the complainant and his brother and some witnesses of the case.