‘Extortion’ racket from Burail Jail: Chandigarh police file chargesheet against 2

Ramkrishan Upadhyay

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 13

The UT police have filed a chargesheet against two accused - Ankit Narwal, alleged aide of gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, and Prabhat Thyagi - in the alleged extortion racket being operated from the Burail Jail.

The chargesheet has been filed under Sections 386 (extortion by putting a person in fear of death or grievous hurt) and 506 (criminal intimidation), 34 and 120-B of the IPC.

The court has issued notices to the accused for September 20. The police have registered the case on a complaint of Philip Jacob, a businessman from Kerala and an accused arrested in April this year for illegally dealing in Remdesivir injections. Jacob, along with five others, including Prabhat Thyagi, was arrested by the Operations Cell of the Chandigarh Police in April for illegally dealing in Remdesivir injections from a Sector 17 hotel.

Jacob alleged that Prabhat Thyagi, along with gangster Lawrence Bishnoi’s aide Narwal, who was in the same barrack, extorted Rs2 lakh from him. After coming out on bail, Jacob lodged a complaint at the Sector 49 police station. Jacob alleged that the extortion demands were initially made by Thyagi, who had been sharing details about Jacob’s business and financial details with other inmates in the barrack.

Jacob said Prabhat Thyagi told him that Ankit Narwal was a big gangster and he was from the Lawrence Bishnoi gang. They had more than 6,000 shooters across the country and they would kill him when he comes for a hearing in the court.

Ankit Narwal and Prabhat Thyagi threatened him several times to pay extortion money and Ankit Narwal gave his brother’s phone number and asked him to coordinate with him to get the money transferred.

Jacob said he spoke to his wife through a calling facility provided by the jail authority and gave the phone number of Narwal’s brother Vikas to get bank account details, PAN card and Aadhaar card. In turn, Vikas allegedly forwarded bank details to his wife, who transferred Rs2 lakh from her son’s account. He alleged that after getting Rs2 lakh, Prabhat Thyagi and Ankit Narwal again threatened to kill him and sought Rs10 lakh. They further demanded Rs30 lakh from him after he was out on bail, otherwise their shooters would kill him. He said they also threatened him not to disclose anything to anybody.