Two Burail jail inmates booked for extorting Rs 2 lakh from another

Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, July 13

Two inmates lodged in Model Jail, Burail, have been booked for allegedly extorting Rs2 lakh from another inmate lodged there. The suspects threatened the complainant, whose wife then transferred the money to the bank account provided to her.

Complainant Philip Jacob, a native of Kerala, who was among six persons arrested by the UT police in April for illegally dealing in remdesivir, a Covid-19 treatment drug, reported that he was lodged in barrack number 9 along with other co-accused in the case, KP Francis and Prabhat Tyagi.

Jacob alleged that Tyagi shared his personal and financial details with other inmates lodged in the same barracks. Jacob alleged that Tyagi claimed that he had links with gangsters who were lodged in the same barracks.

He alleged that an inmate, Ankit Narwal, threatened him and demanded an extortion of Rs40 lakh. Ankit was arrested by the police in 2020 in a murder case of two youths, who were shot dead at their rented accommodation in Sector 15.

According to the complaint, Narwal claimed that he was a member of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang and could eliminate Jacob in the jail.

Narwal provided a mobile number of a person, named Vikas, and asked Jacob to get the money paid to him.

Jacob spoke to his wife through the calling facility provided by the jail authority and shared the mobile number with her. His wife contacted Vikas, who gave a bank account number and asked her to get the money transferred into that account.

According to the complaint, Jacob’s wife transferred Rs1 lakh on June 18 and Rs1 lakh on June 22 to the account number of a woman, named Kamla Devi.

Jacob claimed that after getting Rs2 lakh, Tyagi and Narwal started demanding Rs10 lakh and Rs30 lakh after getting out on bail threatening that or else Narwal’s gang members would shoot him.

The police said a case under Sections 386 (extortion by putting a person in fear of death or grievous hurt), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of a common intention) of the IPC has been registered against Tyagi, Narwal and others at the Sector 49 police station.