Jailed gangster’s aides held for extortion bid

NEW DELHI: A gangster, currently lodged in Tihar Jail, was found to be running an extortion racket after his henchmen threatened a northeast Delhi businessman and demanded Rs 25 lakh as protection money.
Police said that the two accused — Salim and Israr — were arrested a week after a case was registered and investigations began.
The businessman runs a garment business in northeast Delhi’s Welcome.The probe found that over the past few weeks, he had started receiving threatening phone calls asking him to cough up protection money or face dire consequences.
He initially did not report the matter and thought someone was playing a prank on him.
However, on July 3, as the businessman was shutting his shop, two men came and fired at the shop. They left behind a note written in English and Hindi, along with live rounds.
In the note, it was written that the businessman should shell out Rs 25 lakh immediately, otherwise he and his family members would be murdered in broad daylight.
He then reported the incident to the cops and submitted the letter and the live rounds. He also opened up about the phone calls.
Tracing the location of the numbers from which the calls were made, cops found out that one of the numbers was being operated from Tihar Jail, while the other was traced to Moradabad.
Police said that police teams were sent to various locations while tracking the numbers and they nabbed Israr
(34), who confessed to providing his phone for the extortion call. It was found that the accused was previously booked twice in cases of extortion.
Israr also told cops that the extortion bid was being carried out by jailed gangster Azim’s close associate, Salim alias Tillan (25). Local informers were asked to generate information about his movement and he was caught on Tuesday.