Man, nephew held for extortion bid

The crime branch arrested two persons on Friday for allegedly demanding ` 20 lakhs from a west Delhi real estate businessman.

Police officials said the victim, a resident of Paschim Vihar, west Delhi, had filed a complaint on Thursday stating that he was getting extortion calls from two unknown numbers. “The caller was demanding ` 10 lakhs from him as ‘ protection money’ and threatened to kill him if he failed to fulfil his demands. On the second occasion, the caller threatened the complainant that if he did not pay the amount by April 4, the extortion money will double to ` 20 lakhs,” deputy commissioner of police ( crime) Ashok Chand said.

The victim had told the police that some unknown persons had also enquired about his whereabouts from the priest of his ancestral temple in Haryana following which a case was registered. During investigations, the police zeroed in on one

The accused were demanding ` 20 lakhs from a west Delhi- based realtor

Jamil Shah and his nephew Firoz Shah, both residents of Sector 19, Dwarka, and arrested them.

“They were subjected to sustained interrogation during which they revealed that Jamil Shah had worked as a contractor for the maternal uncle of the complainant and had also constructed a building opposite the victim’s office in Dwarka. He had observed that heavy cash transactions were being made from the office of the victim and so he planned to extort money from him. Jamil then procured a SIM card on fake ID to make the extortion call and roped in his nephew Firoz Shah who made the calls to the victim,” Mr Chand said. The mobile phones and the SIM card used for making extortion calls to the victim have been recovered.