NEW DELHI: A 38-year-old man seeking to earn easy money and awed by gangster Neeraj Bawana decided to extort money from local businessmen using the gangster’s name despite having no connection with him.
The accused, identified as Nitin Manchanda, a graduate and diploma holder in computer hardware, subsequently made two extortion calls to the victim, a businessman named Nitesh Gupta.
The victim, Nitesh Gupta, received a call on September 11, in which the accused asked him to pay Rs 5 lakhs in the name of gangster Bawana. Six days later, on September 17, the businessman received another call in which Manchanda threatened to kill him and his family members in case he failed to pay the said amount.
Consequently, the businessman approached the police, which registered an FIR under relevant sections of law and began probing the matter.
When cops questioned the businessman for clues, he had only one thing to say—the extortionist had a Haryanvi accent. “Through technical probe, our team identified the caller’s name as Nitin, who resides in Adarsh Nagar and further manual inputs were received from his area which revealed that he will come near Majlish Park Metro Station,” DCP (Crime) Satish Kumar said, adding the team immediately swung into action and caught the accused. When questioned, the accused initially refused to give such an extortion call.
But then, the tone and accent of his speech made the cops believe that he was lying. “The identity of the accused could only be confirmed through his voice, the Haryanvi accent,” the DCP told this newspaper.
Ultimately, the accused broke down and confessed to making two extortion calls to the owner of Aman Makeover, Adarsh Nagar, Delhi for which Aman Bhalla has already filed a complaint. Further, the mobile phone and SIMs used by the accused to make extortion calls were recovered from his house.