Delhi Police have arrested a 24-year-old sharp-shooter, who demanded Rs50 lakh as extortion amount from a property dealer in Jharoda, CRPF camp in Delhi and had also opened fire at the office of the property dealer allegedly to create terror in the minds of his targets.
The accused has been identified as Pawan alias Pona, who is a sharp-shooter in gangsters Virender and Vikas’s gang.
It is important to mention that Virender and his uncle — Vikas are the two gangsters to have carried out a murder attempt on Bharat Singh, former MLA from Najafgarh, who was recently shot dead. Both were nabbed and remained in jail for few years, but recently the duo jumped parole separately.
According to police, the uncle-nephew had constituted a gang that indulged in extorting money from businessmen and property dealers in the outer regions of the city. They have hired Pawan for threatening those who refused to pay the extortion money.
Recently, their gang demanded Rs 50 lakh as extortion amount from one Sarvar Kumar, a resident of C-Block, Vinobha Enclave, CRPF Camp, Jharoda. When he denied, Vikas along with his associates opened fire at Sarvar’s office to frighten him.
Further, Pawan and two others went to the property dealer’s mother and warned her that her son would be killed by the next morning if he did pay the money, said the police.
The victim approached the police and filed a case, upon which a team was formed to nab the extortionists and the assailants. A team of Crime Branch received a tip-off that Pona would be arriving at a bus stand in Kanjhawala on Monday to meet one of his associates. Accordingly, a trap was laid and he was arrested.
A pistol and bullets were recovered from his possession. Following his arrest, a case under the Arms Act has been registered against him at Crime Branch police station.
In another incident, a businessman was allegedly robbed of cash worth Rs 25 lakh by two unidentified men, who held him at gun point and tied him to a chair, in outer Delhi’s Narela Industrial Area on Wednesday morning.
The victim, identified as Lokesh, owns the franchise of IDEA’s bill payment centre. However, there were reportedly no CCTV cameras inside the premises of the outlet and the police are still clueless about the assailants, who reportedly wore masks, said a police official.
The incident was reported around 8.30 am, when the victim had just opened his shop. No employee was present during the incident. In his complaint, Lokesh told the police that the armed him just ordered him to sit on a chair, where they tied him with a rope, and direct them to the cash bag. They fled in a motorbike after the robbery.
“Prima facie, it appears to be the handiwork of someone known to the victim. The robbers were aware of the time when Lokesh arrived at the showroom, his habit of generally reaching first and alone and that there would be cash at that time. Investigation is underway,” said a police officer.