Man arrested for making extortion calls to businessmen

New Delhi, July 11 (IANS) A 46-year-old man allegedly involved in a bid to extort money from three businessmen in Delhi's Burari and Rohini areas by using a 'spoofing app' has been arrested, the police said on Tuesday. 

The arrested individual has been identified as Vikas Sharma, a resident of Rama Vihar in Begumpur, Delhi. 

According to the police, on June 29, a complaint was received wherein a businessman who runs a jewellery shop mentioned that he received a call from an unknown number, adding the caller threatened him while directing him to pay Rs 15 lakh as extortion money. 

During the investigation, it was found that the caller was making calls to the victim from different numbers.

"It was found that calls were being made from some fake caller app. It was also found that similar threats were given to two different businessmen in Rohini also. Details of the FIRs were collected and similar patterns were drawn wherein it was found that location of delivery of money in two incidents was found within one km, and the threats were given in name of Neetu Pehalwan of Neetu Dhabodiya gang," said Deputy Commissioner of Police Sagar Singh Kalsi. 

"As they were voice calls, route of the calls was collected from concerned telecom service providers," said the DCP. 

However, when details from BSNL were collected, it was learnt that calls were received in India from different servers in Dubai and the US via Delhi, Chennai, Thane (Maharashtra) and Ernakulam (Kerala). 

"Making efforts to extract the caller from his anonymity on the pretext of the supply of extortion money and an effort was made near Begumpur chowk to deliver the money. But the attempt failed as nobody turned up to collect the fake bundle dropped near Begumpur Chowk on the instruction of the caller," said the DCP. 

Subsequently, another attempt was made to deliver money to the caller and the time of delivery was selected on the evening of July 10 at Prashant Vihar.

"Immediately after this conversation, a police team started tracing calls and the movement of one suspected number which started moving from Begumpur to Prashant Vihar. Subsequently, Vikas was apprehended," the police officer said.