The son of a former Vice Chairman of Uttarakhand Minorities Commission and his associate were arrested here for allegedly attempting to extort money from a Delhi real estate developer, police said today.
Balbir Singh (39), the son of the former Minorities Commission Vice Chairman, was apprehended from his house in Uttarakhand's Uddham Singh Nagar two days ago while Deepak, a 39-year-old college drop-out, was arrested from Delhi on May five.
"They had made an extortion call to a leading real estate developer of Delhi NCR and demanded large sum of money," Sanjeev Yadav, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell), said.
The developer had received a call from an international mobile number on April 20 from an unknown person who had identified himself as Chima Shahi.
During investigations, it came to light that the number from which the extortion call was made was operating along the Indo-Nepal border in Uttarakhand. It was also found that several calls were made to Deepak from this number.
Deepak was arrested when he came to Delhi for attending a marriage ceremony and keeping eye on the movement of the complainant, Yadav claimed.
He was arrested from the Central Park in Connaught Place and his interrogation led to Singh.
Deepak, who dropped out in the second year of his graduation, worked as a small time property dealer till 2004 in Ghaziabad and returned to his native village to take care of his ailing father. He got married in 2006 but got divorced later.
"Then he worked as a small time transporter and booked passengers for Uddham Singh Nagar to Delhi on commission. He later purchased a second hand bus but this venture failed. He later dabbled in the contractor ship of earth works but suffered losses," Yadav said.
Deepak told police that he had the contact number of the victim since 2001 when he used to work as a property dealer.
"After suffering string of losses in various ventures, his financial condition worsened. To earn fast money he decided to take the path of extortion. Since, he had heard about the meteoric rise of the complainant in the field of real estate from some of his relatives, he hatched a conspiracy with Singh," Yadav said.
Singh allegedly made the threatening call to the complainant by using a Nepalese SIM which remains active for a few kilometers inside the Indian territory where the village of the accused is situated. After making the call, they planned to follow it up for few days, he said.
"Singh belongs to a well to do family and his father was the Vice Chairman of the State Minority Commission in a previous Uttarakhand Government. However, after completing his graduation, he became addicted to alcohol and did not study further.
"He is married and has two children. Currently, he is unemployed and makes his living by looking after the agricultural interests of his family," Yadav said.
