In a breakthrough, Special Task Force (STF), Uttarakhand and Haridwar police have jointly arrested two hardcore criminals from Roorkee who had allegedly demanded extortion money of Rs 50 lakh from a Roorkee- based businessman. The duo has been identified as Rudraksha Vashishtha and Yasin. Both are said to be tagged with several crimes allegedly committed in Haridwar and Western Uttar Pradesh.
Notably, the duo had allegedly called up on January 27 the Roorkee (Ramnagar, Gangnahar)- based businessman Rajan Johar, demanded extortion money of Rs 50 lakh and threatened him of consequence if the money was not delivered at the fixed time. One of the duo had allegedly posed himself as Narendra Valmiki, a hardened criminal. Acting on the complaint received from the businessman, a case under appropriate sections of IPC had been registered against some unidentified persons in Gangnahar police station.
Roorkee circle officer SK Singh said that a team from Gangnahar police station and SOG had remained engaged in cracking the case. “Finally the duo got trapped in our net on Wednesday evening. Several criminal cases have been registered against them at various police stations of Haridwar,” he said.
During interrogation, Yasir is learnt to have revealed that he had made the extortion call on the direction of Rudraksha Vashishtha’s brother Anubhav Vashishtha. Rudraksha is said to have revealed names of Yasin, Arti, wife of Rudraksha, Anchal, native of Bijnor and Amit, resident of Jwalapur as involved in the extortion call. A team has been formed to arrest Arti, police said. State additional director general of police (law and order) Ashok Kumar and STF SSP awarded Rs 5000 and Rs 2500 to the team respectively for arresting the duo.