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.
Berhampur: A stone weighing 2 kg fell from the ‘Singhadwara Gumuta’ of the Lord Jagannath…
New Delhi: Recent pictures of Space Station Commander Sunita Williams from the International Space Station…
Mumbai: Actress Rupali Ganguly recently filed a Rs 50 crore defamation case against her stepdaughter…
Chennai: Odisha will face Manipur in the semifinals of the 14th Hockey India Senior Men’s…
New Delhi: India will again ask Canada for the extradition of designated Khalistani terrorist Arshdeep Singh…
Berhampur: Police have arrested a man from West Bengal for allegedly claiming himself to be…
Mumbai: Carving a niche for himself in Bollywood was not a cakewalk for ‘The Family…
Mumbai: Mukesh Khanna’s Indian superhero series ‘Shaktimaan’ has been making headlines for quite some time…