NEW DELHI: A 38-year-old local trader of potatoes, who was allegedly kidnapped and extorted nearly Rs 3.5 lakh by criminals six months back, yet again received an extortion call from the same miscreants.
The victim alerted the cops, who nabbed two persons—Vinay (30) and Vijay (32)—after a brief exchange of fire, with the former receiving a shot in his leg. The third accused, Sarvan Kumar (31), who worked as the driver of the complaint, was the mole leaking the information to the extortionists.
DCP (outer-north) Ravi Kumar Singh on Tuesday said the complainant, Rajiv Singh, who works at Anaj Mandi in the Narela area, told the cops about the extortion call he received from an unknown mobile number on August 25 threatened him with dire consequences if he failed to pay a ransom of Rs 4 lakhs.
The victim recognised the caller’s voice and claimed that the person was among the people who had kidnapped him in February and extorted Rs 3.5 lakhs. “Last time, Rajiv neither told anyone nor approached the police,” the DCP said.
The cops analysed the unknown number and received information about the accused person’s location. A trap was laid to nab the accused on Monday. However, seeing the presence of police personnel, the DCP said they tried to flee from the spot.
“One of the accused, Vijay, was nabbed by the cops, but the co-accused, Vinay, whipped out a pistol and fired a shot at the cops,” the senior police official said. The police retaliated and fired three shots, one of which hit the leg of Vinay, who was then rushed to a nearby hospital. The duo were arrested, and a fresh case under sections of the BNS and Arms Act was lodged against them, the DCP added.