Delhi: Man held for posing as ‘don’ to extort money

New Delhi: The police arrested a 27-year-old man, who under the garb of an underworld don demanded money from businessmen in Delhi, on Tuesday.

The accused identified as Pranay Tiwari used to work as a store supervisor at a shop at Ambience Mall, Vasant Kunj. He used the personal information from the forms filled by customers at the mall and called businessmen to extort money from them, the police said. 

On August 28, a west Delhi-based businessman filed a police complaint alleging that a man claiming to be an underworld don Rizwan Khan had called him and demanded  `one crore from him, the police said.

The caller had even threatened to harm him and his family members, if the demanded money was not paid, they added.

During preliminary inquiry, it was found that several businessmen of Delhi and other parts of the country had received the extortion calls from the same mobile phone number.

In other cases too, the caller identified himself as Rizwan Khan and told the victims that they were under constant surveillance by his associates and if the money was not paid, he would eliminate them and their family members, the police said.

Police teams of Delhi, Mumbai, Haryana and Chhattisgarh worked jointly and conducted a study of the modus operandi of the accused and it was revealed that he was based in Rewa, Madhya Pradesh from where he was making the extortion calls, the police said.

A team was constituted and raids were carried out in Rewa and nearby areas. The police team traced his location to Ratehara, Rewa.

The police contacted the accused to take delivery of the money he had demanded from the complainant and a place was decided and laid a trap for him. When the accused turned up at the decided place and picked up the parcel, he was nabbed by the Crime Branch on the intervening night of September 10 and 11.

Rajesh Deo, deputy commissioner of police (crime) said that the accused had been doing since January and the police are investigating whether he actually has any extortion money left with him.