2 held for demanding Rs 20L extortion money from toll plaza employee
Patiala cops have arrested two persons, both school dropouts, for allegedly demanding Rs 20 lakh extortion money from Darshan Singh Laddi, a toll plaza employee who is also the president of the Toll Plaza Employees Union, Punjab.
Patiala SP (Investigation) Yogesh Sharma said that Sunpreet Singh of Ahmedgarh and Rohit Ram of Lehra Gaga were arrested by a team of the Crime Investigating Agency led by ASP (Investigation) Vaibhav Chaudhary.
“They were inspired by web shows and movies. While one is a plumber, the other works as a marketing executive,” he said.
Both of them do not have any past criminal record. They hatched the conspiracy to commit the crime after coming to know that Laddi had bought an SUV recently and that he could pay ransom.
“They went to the Hissar railway station from where they stole a mobile phone of a passenger on September 13. Rohit rang up Laddi and demanded Rs 20 lakh from him. He said the money should be delivered to them at a designated place about which they would inform him in three days,” said CIA incharge Shaminder Singh. Sunpreet is a distant relative of Laddi, he added.
“Later, Sunpreet went home and kept a close eye on his relatives and when he became sure that the police had not been informed, he planned to make another phone call to Laddi, asking him to arrange the money at the earliest,” he added.
The police said Rohit threatened to eliminate Laddi in case the money was not paid. He claimed to have links with a gangster. The two then threw away the mobile phone. As Laddi approached the police, the CIA staff started investigating the matter and cracked the case with the arrest of the duo from near the Samana bus stop on September 28.
During questioning, they said after watching some web series and hearing gangster-related news, they were tempted to make quick money. “Sunpreet discussed about his distant who had recently bought an SUV. Considering him a soft target, they decided to commit the crime,” Shaminder Singh said.
