In a joint operation conducted by the Special Task Force (STF) of the Haryana police, Central Agencies, Mumbai Police Crime Branch, and the STF Bihar police, six extortionists, were arrested for their alleged involvement in threatening and making extortion calls to four Haryana MLA, the STF officials said on Sunday.
The accused were arrested from Mumbai and Muzaffarpur in Bihar, they said. During the investigation, the team found that the MLAs had received threats and extortion calls between 24-06-22 and 28-06-22 from multiple phone numbers which were registered in the Middle Eastern countries and were being operated from Pakistan.
The team also noticed that Some ex-MLAs of Punjab had also received similar threats from these numbers. Different tones and conversational styles, like Mumbaikar tone and Punjabi language, were used during these conversations with these MLAs.
Following the seriousness of the matter Inspector General of Police (IGP), STF Satish Balan formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) under the leadership of Sumit Kumar STF to investigate these cases. The SIT included STF Units which were led by Sandeep Dhankhar, DSP STF and Surendra Kinha, DSP STF.
Thereafter, STF conducted a technical analysis of these mobile numbers and IP addresses. While working on this link, two parallel teams conducted raids across Mumbai and Muzaffarpur in Bihar and apprehended six criminals.
Those arrested were identified as Dulesh Alam a resident of district Betia, Bihar and Badre Alam of district Basti, Uttar Pradesh, the duo were arrested from Mumbai. They were found in the possession of approximately 20 Passbook/Cheque Books, 18 ATMs, 14 fake sim cards, 1 diary and 5 mobile phones.
Similarly, from Muzaffarpur in Bihar, STF arrested 4 more accused Amit Yadav aka Radheshyam Yadav of district Gopalgunj, Bihar, Saddiq Anwar of Motihari, Bihar, Sanoj Kumar of Muzaffarpur, Bihar and Kash Alam of district Betia, Bihar.
The STF recovered 2 Passbook/Cheque books, 2 diaries, 1 register, 42 sim cards, 19 mobile phones, and 37 ATMs. In total 55 ATMs, 24 mobile phones, 56 sim cards, 22 Passbook/Cheque books, Rs. 3,97,000/-, one car TATA Punch, 3 diaries and 1 register have been found in the possession of these culprits.
While disclosing their modus operandi IGP, STF Satish Balan said "These culprits often enticed poor or common people by offering them 15-20 thousand rupees and convinced them to open bank accounts and would then keep all the documents (Passbook/Cheque book/ATM Card/ATM Pin) with themselves and would buy fake sim cards to operate these accounts".
Balan said during raids, the Mumbai Police Crime Branch, STF Bihar and Bihar Police offered complete support to STF.
"During interrogation, the STF found that approximately 10 Pakistani residents through whom the threats and extortion were routed," he said, adding that however, these accused do not belong to any criminal gang or terrorist organisation".
"This is a gang of very sharp criminals who are involved in professional fraud, and money laundering and have their members across Pakistan, the Middle East and India. People sitting across these other countries would entice victims by naming “Kaun Banega Crorepati” or lotteries or by extortion calls and would make them transfer money to the account numbers given by Dulesh or Amit. The duo then either withdraw this money via ATMs or would transfer this amount to the Indian accounts of their Pakistan-based gang members," he added.
A different case in this regard was registered in different police stations in Haryana.