Ludhiana: One after another, city-based businessmen are receiving extortion calls either from the gangsters or from the unidentified people impersonating them. In yet another case a city-based businessman has received an extortion of Rs 20 lakh. The caller claimed to be Jaggu Lahoria, who is associated with gangster Dilpreet Baba. Talking about the action, the police could not do anything beyond registering a case.Gurpreet Singh, who owns the chain of famous Palji Bakery, said that he was at his shop located on Sat Paul Mittal Road (popularly known as Malhar Road), when a call was received from an international number. The call was attended by his staffer, and the caller introduced himself as Jaggu Lahoria. The accused demanded Rs 20 lakh as extortion and threatened to face dire consequences for not giving the money. Complainant added that the accused threatened to meet the fate of the owner of Sindhi Bakery, Rajguru Nagar, who was shot at by assailants for not giving extortion money, a few years ago.Immediately after disconnecting the call, Gurpreet Singh informed the police. Division Number 5 police have registered a case against unidentified accused under charges of criminal intimidation and extortion. In the past few months, several Ludhiana based traders and businessmen have received extortion calls. In some of the cases the police booked the gangsters by name, however in majority of the cases the FIRs have been lodged against unidentified accused. The police probe in all these cases have reached nowhere. If talk about the safety of the victims who received the extortion calls, the police have just asked them to stay alert.Traders hire pvt muscle amid rising threatsOne of the victims, who received an extortion call, a few days ago, shared with TOI, “The caller had threatened to shoot for not giving protection money. I have approached the police for protection but did not receive any positive response. Thereafter, I hired private security personnel for my family and myself.” When asked a senior police official, he said, “The police have recently busted a racket where the gangsters had involved local youths to gather information about the targets and to execute firing at their house. The police have arrested them all. Even some criminals sitting in different jails were brought on production warrants and were arrested, after their involvement was found. In the other majority of the cases, the callers are sitting abroad and in some cases the callers are using the names of gangsters.”
