A Delhi Police official on Monday said that four budding criminals, who copied the modus operandi of gangsters after watching YouTube videos, were arrested for trying to extort Rs 40 lakhs from a man in Dwarka area.
The accused were identified as Ajay Kumar (26) from Uttam Nagar; Ashish (24) from Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh; Lucky (23) and Vishal (22), both residents of Vijay Enclave, Dabri.
On July 18, a complaint was lodged at the Bindapur police station in which the victim said that he received a WhatsApp call on behalf of a criminal gang threatening to kill him if he didn’t pay a ransom of Rs 40 lakhs.
During the investigation, with the help of technical surveillance, Vishal was arrested in Dabri.
“On interrogation, Vishal disclosed that he provided two new SIM cards to his close friend Lucky. They both went near Shakuntala hospital, Sagarpur, and met a person named Ashish, who was well known to Lucky. Lucky gave four SIM cards to Ashish,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (Dwarka) M. Harsha Vardhan said.
Lucky and Ashish were arrested based on Vishal’s statement.
During interrogation, Ashish further revealed that he gave four SIM cards to his friend named Ajay, who met him near the Nawada Metro station.
“Ajay Kumar is the mastermind behind the above-mentioned conspiracy. Raids were conducted at different places in Uttam Nagar and other areas, but Ajay was not found anywhere. Secret informers were also engaged in the Uttam Nagar and Bindapur areas to identify the main accused,y,” said the DCP.
On July 27, information was received regarding Ajay’s whereabouts at Sector-03, Dwarka.
“Subsequently, the team reached the location and laid a trap at the expected place of his arrival. The team apprehended him as per the informer’s tip-off,” said the DCP.
During frisking, eight mobile phones and eight SIM cards were recovered from his possession.
Upon verification, it was found that the accused used the SIM cards in two Android mobile phones that were recovered from him before making the extortion call.
“Ajay disclosed that he disposed of the phone and SIM card near Sagarpur after making the second threat call on July 22. He also revealed that he was inspired by a video of extortion calls by criminal gangs on YouTube and was drawn to their modus operandi of extorting money from well-settled businessmen,” the DCP added.
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