160 Extortion Calls In 10 Months: Delhi Businessmen On The Edge

New Delhi: If you are rich and famous, there are high chances that you will receive threats from miscreants. It may be a genuine or fake threat, but it’s only human to be nervous and scared.

It’s become routine for celebrities like Salman Khan to be targeted.

Even businessmen are not being spared.

Businessmen in Delhi, especially, are having sleepless nights, having received at least 160 extortion calls till October this year, averaging one call every second day, PTI reported quoting police sources.

Most of these calls originate from foreign-based gangsters or their associates, using Voice Over Internet Protocol or international phone numbers.

Builders and property dealers, jewellers and owners of sweet shops and car showrooms across Delhi were the ones to get a majority of these extortion calls.

In some cases, the calls were followed by firing outside the house or office of the targeted individual, officials said.

There were 7 such cases reported in four days recently. The targets were a jeweller, gym owner, property dealers, sweet shop owner and a motor workshop owner.

In one of those incidents reported from Rohini on November 5, three men entered a showroom and fired in the air, leaving behind an extortion note with names of gangsters and an amount written on it.

On November 7, a call was made from an international number demanding Rs 7 crore from a gym owner in Nangloi. The caller claimed to be associated with jailed gangster Deepak Boxer, an associate of Lawrence Bishnoi.

FIRs have been registered in all seven cases, and separate teams of the Special Cell and Crime Branch are working to catch the culprits, said a police officer.

A police officer who handles such cases said the callers use VOIP numbers or WhatsApp numbers taken on fake SIM cards.

A total of 141 such cases were reported during the same period in 2023, while the figure for 2022 was 110.

According to police, 204 cases of people getting extortion calls were reported throughout 2023 and 187 in 2022.