Congress worker held for extorting ₹1 lakh from Jandiala businessman

›

To blackmail me, Sanjeev used to pretend to call SSPrural on phone. Later, I came to know that he had saved a fake number with SSP’s name to threaten me. SATINDER SINGH, complainant

AMRITSAR: Congress worker Sanjeev Kumar Chopra was caught red-handed while extorting money from a businessman at Jandiala grain market, here on Thursday, police said.

The accused, who is a commission agent and is said to be close to a Congress MLA, was arrested while taking ₹1 lakh from Satinder Singh, a businessman who exports grocery items in Jandiala, while two of his aides— Sudeep Kumar Bawa and Jaideep Singh of Jandiala Guru—are at large, police said.

The three accused had already duped the businessman of ₹29.5 lakh for not implicating him in a fake murder case, said the police, adding that, “Sanjeev had claimed to be a close aide of senior superintendent of police (SSP-rural) Parampal Singh.”

The victim made a complaint to the SSP-rural stating that, “In August this year, Gopy Chand Bedi, who had been working as a munim in Sudeep’s shop in Jandiala grain market, died due to a heart attack. After Munim’s death, Sanjeev with the help of Sudeep and Jaideep have been blackmailing me to implicate me and my family in Gopy’s murder case”.

He said, “In order to blackmail me, Sanjeev used to pretend to call SSP-rural on phone in front of me and demanded ₹30.5 lakh. In fear, I gave him ₹29.5 lakh few days ago. Later, I came to know that Sanjeev had saved a fake number with the name of the SSP to threaten me. Now, the accused are demanding ₹1 lakh more.”

SSP Parampal Singh said, “Taking cognisance of the victim’s complaint, a team, comprising superintendent of police (SP-investigation) Harpal Singh, deputy superintendent of police (DSP-investigation) Gurpartap Singh Sahota, DSP-Ajnala Harpreet Singh, Jandiala tehsildar Harfool Singh and a sub-divisional officer Rajinderpal of water supply department, was formed to arrest the accused redhanded.”

Singh said, “The team gave marked notes of ₹1 lakh to the victim. When the victim gave the amount to Sanjeev, the team reached the spot and caught him red-handed.”

He said a case under Sections 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 120 B (punishment of criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), and Section 7-A of the Prevention of Corruption Act,1988, has been registered against the trio at Jandiala police station. “Raids are being conducted to nab the absconding aides of Sanjeev,” Singh added.