Extortion racket busted, two arrested

Two debt recovery agents have been arrested for allegedly demanding extortion money posing as a senior police official and an advocate, police said on Thursday.

Ankit Panwar, 22, of Sagarpur and Lalit Gupta, 19, of Uttam Nagar, were held over a complaint that a close relative of a MP was being threatened and abused in order to recover money.

“The caller claimed that he was a police official and threatened the complainant that a warrant had been issued on a case filed by a mobile service provider,” said Sanjay Kumar Jain, deputy commissioner of police (crime and railways).

Based on the complaint, cops began a technical surveillance on the cellphone number through which the call was made. The phone and connection’s call detail records, customer agreement form, and international mobile equipment identity were scrutinised.

“It was found that the number was obtained on forged documents to avoid trailing. But we managed to identify the user to a debt recovery agency at Dabri,” Jain added.

A raid was conducted and Ankit and Lalit were apprehended. Ankit told police that he had been running a debt recovery agency, Shinestar Solution, for the past one year, while Lalit had been working with him for the past four months.

“In order to recover due money from customers of their clients, they used to threaten them by posing as senior police officials,” Jain said, adding they also threatened them with legal action and court warrant.

Fourteen cellphones along with SIM cards were recovered.