Gurugram man minor held for extortion bid using virtual foreign number

Gurugram, Oct 29 (PTI) A 25-year-old man who works as a clerk for a lawyer at the Gurugram court and his 15-year-old accomplice have been arrested for allegedly demanding extortion money from a liquor shop owner using a virtual foreign phone number on Thursday, police said.

     The accused, identified as Sumit, a resident of Sikanderpur Badha village, allegedly obtained the virtual number using information available on the internet and conspired with the minor to demand money from the shop owner, they said.

     According to police, the complainant approached Farrukhnagar police station on Wednesday and reported that he had received a call from an unknown number on October 25 at around 12.41 pm.

     The caller claimed to be speaking from the United States, introduced himself as a person with criminal tendencies and demanded money, threatening the shop owner with serious consequences and harm if he failed to pay, police said.

     An FIR was registered at Farrukhnagar police station following the complaint.

     A Crime Branch team led by Sub-Inspector Lokesh Kumar used technical assistance to investigate the case and arrested the two accused on Thursday, police said.

     During preliminary interrogation, Sumit allegedly told police that he had obtained the virtual foreign number using information available on the internet. He and the minor then planned to use it to call the liquor shop owner and demand extortion money, they said.

     The minor allegedly made the threatening call as part of the plan. The shop owner had agreed to pay the money, which Sumit was supposed to collect, but the two were arrested before the transaction could be completed, police said.

     “We are questioning the accused,” ACP (Crime) Indivar said.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)