Two men arrested for trying to extort 2.5 crore from printing press owner

A 30-year-old man and his brother-in-law were arrested for allegedly trying to extort Rs 2.5 crore from the owner of a printing press in northwest Delhi's Model Town, police said on Monday.

The accused were identified as Aman Kumar Jha (30) and Aman Tiwary (20), both natives of Jamshedpur in Jharkhand, they said.

In his complaint, Harish Mittal, owner of the printing press alleged that on April 5, he received a extortion call where the caller demanded Rs. 50 lakhs.

Mittal then contacted his close friend Ajay Chauhan, who got back to the caller to negotiate the amount.

The caller told Chauhan that Mittal will have to pay Rs.2.5 crore immediately.

"Chauhan tried to convince the caller that Mittal was not in a position to pay such a huge amount but the caller insisted that if the money is not paid, Mittal will lose his life," said Vijayanta Arya, Deputy Commissioner of Police (northwest).

During investigation, the location of the unknown caller was traced to Jamshedpur. A team was sent to the steel city in Jharkhand to conduct raids and in the early hours of April 7 the duo were arrested.

The mobile phone and SIM card used for making extortion call have also been recovered, she added.

Interrogation revealed that in the past, Jha had worked in the printing press of Mittal for about one month from July 2018 to August 2018.

Jha did not have at present and his wife has been living in her parental home at Jamshedpur.