J-K: 3 held for extorting money from truck drivers on highway in Parimpora

Jammu and Kashmir Police arrested three people who used to pretend themselves as terrorists and extort money from truck drivers by threatening them here.

The accused have been identified as Aquib Mushtaq, Rameez and Shabbir Ahmed. All of them were aged between 20 to 25 years.

Giving information about the arrest, Srinagar SSP, Dr Haseeb Mogul said, "For the past two-three months, we were hearing complaints from truckers whose vehicle number is not from J-K that they were stopped on the highway and some unknown persons threaten them and demand money from them. Some have not formally complaint while some have complained to the police."

"The latest incident is of 11 December when a truck with Andhra Pradesh number plate was stopped in Parimpora on the highway and Rs 23,000 was taken from the driver at gunpoint," Mogul said.

The SSP said, "We acted on this complained and used our field resources and digital surveillance on certain suspects. We got a lead and nabbed the one accused Aquib Mushtaq and when we interrogate him and we arrested two other accused. So in total, three people were arrested and we recovered toy pistols and fabricated guns and some cash from them."

"Their modus operandi was to stop truck drivers and gunpoint and extort money from them. Sometimes they travel with truck drivers and show them directions when they reach an isolated place the accused used to threaten the truckers and take money from them," the SSP said.

He further said, "From Aquib we recovered a dummy AK 47 and a knife. From Rameez dummy AK 47 and from Shabbir a toy pistol. Total extortion cash is worth 2, 84,000 and only 14,200 have been recovered. Four mobiles and some jewelry were also recovered from them. So we want to clear that these incidents were due to extortion and not due to militant activity."

"In district Srinagar 4 FIRs have been registered of this type of crime since August, An investigation is still going on," he added.