Man sets father-in-law’s car afire, makes extortion call posing as gangster; held

The Ludhiana police have claimed to have solved the case in which a man posing as gangster Pandit had made an extortion call to a businessman and demanded Rs 5 lakh. Two days before making a call, the accused had also set a car of the businessman on fire and warned him that if Rs 5 lakh were not given, then the latter would have to face serious consequences.

The police today arrested the accused, who is son-in-law of the complainant. The accused had been making the threatening calls out of greed for becoming rich in a short span of time.

Assistant Commissioner of Police, Industrial Area-B, Satwinder Singh, along with Miller Ganj police post incharge ASI Dharminder Singh, addressed a press conference regarding the matter.

Complainant Satish Jain had lodged a complaint that on the night of June 19 his car bearing registration number Punjab 10 HT 4776 was parked on an empty plot near his house, which was set on fire by some miscreant. When he checked the CCTV cameras the next day, it was found that some unknown persons, whose faces were covered, had set his car on fire.

On June 22, his son received a WhatsApp call and the caller while posing himself as gangster Pandit told his son that he had set their car on fire and demanded Rs 5 lakh or else threatened to harm his son and other family members. On the basis of his complaint, the police started investigation in the matter and identified Tarun Kumar, a resident of Mohalla Nirankari, back side of Sigma Nursing College, Ludhiana, has been named as an accused in the case.

ACP Satwinder Singh said that today the police had received a tip-off about the whereabouts of the suspect and immediately conducted a raid and nabbed the accused.

ACP Singh revealed that daughter of complainant Satish Jain had eloped with Tarun in 2022 and married him. The complainant was against the marriage, but his daughter decided to marry Tarun as they were adults. The complainant had stopped talking to his daughter and Tarun. According to the accused, he is a poor migrant while his father-in-law is rich, so the accused set the car on fire and made extortion call of Rs 5 lakh.

Meanwhile, ADCP-2 Karanveer Singh said that when the car was set on fire, the key accused was accompanied by two of his accomplices and raids were already being conducted to nab them. However, the extortion call was only made by son-in-law of the complainant.

Ludhiana