Three held for 'exortion' call from Tihar jail

Three men have been arrested over an ‘extortion’ call made from Tihar Jail demanding Rs 50 lakh as protection money,  the police said on Saturday.

Mohammad Atik, 40, Satwant Singh, 28, and Udham Singh, 29, were held over a complaint by a Nangloi-based businessman. The complainant had approached Nangloi police station on March 22.

“He got extortion calls on his mobile phone on March 17 and 18,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (West) Pushpendra Kumar. ReasonThe caller demanded Rs 50 lakh as protection money and threatened to kill the complainant’s son. “He said he was speaking from Tihar Jail,” Kumar added.

The complainant recorded the extortion calls and lingered over the call saying he did not have that much money.

 He also claimed to have taken a loan from different banks for his business. During investigation, it was revealed that the SIM card used for making the calls was obtained on a fake ID. The police team managed to apprehended Satwant.

He revealed that he along with Mohammad Atik, Udham and a man named Amit had made the calls. Following this, Mohammad and Udham were also arrested. Amit is absconding.

“(Mohammad) Atik is a property dealer who came in contact of the complainant regarding transaction of a property. The deal could not be materialised,” Kumar said.

Mohammad, during this interaction, came to know that the complainant was financially sound. His business, however, was not going well. He had taken a loan of Rs 18 lakh at an interest of four per cent per month and was paying Rs 72,000 as interest per month.

“(Mohammad) Atik was in need of money to repay the loan amount. He then planned to extort money from the complainant,” Kumar added. The accused developed the plan after seeing an episode of a TV serial.