2 Delhi brothers held for trying to extort money from bizman to make up for losses during lockdown

The accused, identified as Delhi-residents Devender Singh (41) and Ravinder Singh (37), were arrested with the help of technical surveillance, they said. According to a complaint filed by the 40-year-old factory owner on July 14, he received repeated calls from a person, who identified himself as Bhakhtawar, demanding Rs two crore.

Two businessmen brothers have been arrested for allegedly trying to extort Rs two crore from a household appliances factory owner to make up for the financial losses they suffered during the coronavirus-induced lockdown, police said on Monday. The accused, identified as Delhi-residents Devender Singh (41) and Ravinder Singh (37), were arrested with the help of technical surveillance, they said.

According to a complaint filed by the 40-year-old factory owner on July 14, he received repeated calls from a person, who identified himself as Bhakhtawar, demanding Rs two crore. The caller also threatened him. The police said one of the accused used to supply components to the household appliances factory in Haryana's Bahadurgarh and knew its owner, also a Delhi resident.

During investigation, the police collected details of the mobile number from which the extortion calls were made. The mobile number, however, was found to be registered in the name of a person who disclosed to the police that he had lost his wallet along with documents a year ago and was not aware about the number, said Anto Alphonse, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Dwarka).

Later, the police found that the extortion calls were being made from different locations, he said. With the help of technical surveillance, the police traced the accused and arrested them after they confessed to the crime, he added.

"During interrogation, Ravinder disclosed that during the lockdown, he faced financial loss. Though his brother Devender has his own work but even he faced financial losses. so, taking cue from a TV crime series, they planned to make quick money," the DCP said. To execute their plan, they bought a new SIM card and made extortion calls from the new number and used a fake name while making extortions calls. They kept changing their locations while making such calls and threatened the victim to arrange Rs 2 crore, he said.

The mobile phones used in crime have been recovered from them, the police said..

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