Interstate extortion racket busted, 10 arrested

Police today claimed to have busted an interstate extortion racket by arresting 10 persons accused of trying to coerce businessmen into paying money by sending them fake summons of the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
Kolkata-based businessmen Sanjay Surekha and Mahavir Aggarwal had received "summons" from the ED asking them to join investigation in alleged money laundering complaints against their companies, police said.
But, when they approached the ED office in Delhi, it was found that no such summons were issued, Sanjeev Yadav, DCP (Special Cell) said.
Following this, Assistant Director of ED Kamal Singh filed a complaint at Tuglak Road police station on September 2. The case was registered in this regard, which was later transferred to the Special Cell, the officer said

A number of teams were formed to nab the accused who were scattered in different parts of the country. Kalyan Shukla and Gaurav Pradhan were nabbed from Kolkata. Both had tried to extort Rs 5 crore from Sanjay Surekha by assuring him they would get ED matter settled, he said.
Dinesh Nagpal was arrested from his residence at Pandara Road here. Kingpin of the gang, Alex Joseph, and Sanjay Paswan were also arrested from Delhi, Yadav said, adding Rakesh Kundra was arrested from Mumbai.

Joseph was earlier arrested in cases of importing around 500 luxury cars from Dubai as second-hand vehicles and evading import duty over Rs 200 crore, the DCP (Special Cell) said.

Another accused, Rajesh Nair, was arrested from Delhi on October 14, who led to the arrests of Ericsson Massey and Mohammad Tariq two days later. The 10th accused, Javed Khan, was arrested from Jamia Nagar here on October 19, he said.
The police teams have seized incriminating materials including fake ED summons from the accused, the officer added.