No organised extortion gangs operate in Delhi: Cops

No organised extortion racket or gang is active in Delhi and neither the police has seen a pattern which indicates towards a particular gang nor any input so far has emerged that any group or gang is involved in demanding extortion money, the Delhi Police said.

"Delhi is not having an organised pattern of crime in extortion. Various units of police like crime branch, special cell and district police have been keeping a close track on criminals so that no organised crime is committed in the capital nor a pattern is

developed," said Deepender Pathak, chief spokesperson, Delhi Police.

If we look at the records in the year 2016, a total of 226 cases of extortion were reported out of which 127 cases were worked out. In 2017 till June 15, the Delhi Police data confirms 84 cases of extortion, out of which 46 have been solved.

"Though there is no organised extortion racket but we have seen sporadic incidents of extortion. If any individual is found extorting money then we tend to take action under proper sections of law but no gang has come to our knowledge involved as a unit in this crime," the officer added.

Recently, the Delhi Police has arrested one man for threatening and demanding Rs 10 lakh as an extortion amount from a businessman in Seemapuri area of Shahdara district.

Sonu Khan, who works as a sofa maker and is a resident of Shaheed Nagar in Ghaziabad, was held in the case.

According to police, complainant Raja Khan, who owns an interior decoration office in Dilshad Colony, had received threat calls from an unknown number.

The caller demanded protection money from him to work peacefully in the area. Khan initially avoided these calls but things went horrific when on May 23 three men, one of whom introduced himself as Sonu Khan visited Khan's office.

The men demanded Rs 10 lakh as protection money and threatened him of dire consequences if he failed to arrange the same. He was also threatened by keeping a pistol in front of him to scare.

The whole incident was recorded in the CCTV camera installed in the office of the designer to which the extortionists were unaware about. The businessman borrowed some time after which they left. He later approached police for help.