Two men, who allegedly extorted money from policemen and other government officials on the pretext of conducting fake sting operations on them, were arrested in the national capital, police said today.
Pushp Kumar Sharma (38) and Pankaj Kumar, in his thirties, were caught last week when they were allegedly trying to extort Rs10,000 from Rishi Rose, a head constable posted at Vasant Vihar.
So far, two police officials — a head constable from Lodhi Colony police station and a sub inspector from IP Estate police station — have been identified as his earlier targets.
Deputy commissioner of police (South) said Rs10,000 cash, a mobile phone of Sharma from which extortion calls were made to victims, a motorcycle and a car have been recovered from them.
"They used to create a fake scene of an accident on a main road. As soon as the police would arrive at the spot, they would pretend to compromise on the matter. On the pretext of paying money to victims as damages, they took would take a change of Rs500 or Rs1,000 from police and after that, the duo would leave the spot.
"After some days, Sharma would start making calls to the concerned policeman threatening him that they have captured his images with money and have performed a fake sting operation on him. They would ask him to pay up," Dhaliwal said.
The incident relating to Rose took place on October 21 when police received a call that an accident between a car and a motorcycle has taken place near IIT gate.
"The tail light of the car was slightly broken. At the spot, Pankaj Kumar posed himself as a complainant and stated that his car was hit from behind by a motorcycle driven by Sharma.
"Both the parties settled the matter on their own and Sharma asked for a change of Rs500 from Rose, who gave the change. Sharma gave Rs 400 to Kumar and settled the matter in writing," Dhaliwal said.
After some days, Sharma allegedly called Rose and demanded money on the pretext of a "sting operation" and threatened that the same would be aired on a TV channel. Rose then reported the matter to his superiors.
A trap was laid and Sharma was arrested on November 17 when he was seen receiving Rs10,000 cash as extortion amount from Rose at the SDA market Subway near IIT Hauz Khas.
During investigations, Dhaliwal said, it came to notice that the car used in the fake incident is in the name of Sharma's wife.
The accused also disclosed that in the past he has conducted several similar "sting operations".
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