NEW DELHI: Delhi Police has arrested 10 men for allegedly extorting money from businessmen in the name of Enforcement Directorate. From preparing fake summons to posting them and then striking a deal, each arrested member had a specific role in the alleged syndicate, claimed the police.
Alex Joseph, the alleged kingpin of the network, is also accused of importing 500 luxury cars from other countries by evading import duty of Rs.200 crores, between the years 1990 and 2013, informed a police official.
The matter came to police's knowledge when an assistant director of ED approached the police with a complaint that the agency's name had been used to extort money from two Kolkata based businessmen by sending a fake summon (purported to be that of ED) to both by using the complainant's name and stamp and attempted to extort money from them.
“These two businessmen of Kolkata Sanjay Surekha and Mahavir Aggarwal had received summon from ED, Delhi to join the investigation regarding complaints of money laundering of crores of rupees and violation of PMLA by their companies. When the two businessmen approached the office of ED, Delhi, they were shocked to know that no such summon were ever issued,” said the officer.
Tracing the copies of the summons and the addresses from where they were posted, Special Cell sleuths found that members of this syndicate were scattered all across the country in Kolkata, Mumbai, Kerala, Haryana, Punjab, Delhi, UP etc.
“Two accused persons namely Kalyan Shukla and Gaurav Pradhan were nabbed from Kolkata by a team led by SI Jeetendra Tiwari. Both these persons had tried to extort 5 crore rupees from Sanjay Surekha. They assured him (Sanjay Surekha) that they would get settled the matter in ED. Both of them met Sanjay Surekha in ITC Hotel, Kolkata to negotiate the deal. But Sanjay Surekha became suspicious and reported the matter to ED,” said the officer.
Modus Operandi
On the modus operandi, the officer said that the conspiracy to extort money from businessmen was by putting them fear of implicating in cases of money laundering in ED. “After sending the summons Then they used to send their associates to mediate and liaison with the businessmen to negotiate with them for money to close the case,” said the officer.
These fake summons were prepared by one Mohd. Tariq prepared fake blank summons of ED from his computer in cyber café in Mewat and also procured fake seals/ stamps of ED.