The Hindu : New Delhi News : `Bad times' for extortionists

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Aug 11, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

`Bad times' for extortionists

By Devesh K. Pandey

NEW DELHI, AUG. 10. It appears that the underworld dons operating from outside India are now struggling to remain in business, if recent extortion cases are anything to go by. Over the years, the protection money demanded by the dons has gone down considerably and the shift in their modus operandi is being attributed to the continued police action against their associates as also the increasing defiance of businessmen to succumb to their threats.

While earlier, the dons would quote extortion amounts running into crores, they now seem to be content with a much lesser amount through "safe deals". The case in point is the arrest of Mohammad Gufran and Mohammad Parvez, two of the alleged accomplices of Fazl-ur-Rehman, who is believed to be currently operating from Dubai and Malaysia.

According to the police, Fazlu had directed the duo to demand only Rs. 25 lakhs from a South-West Delhi businessman. As previous extortion cases have revealed, the initial protection amount is subject to negotiation. According to a senior police officer, even local criminals who are into the extortion business these days quote such an amount. In another case reported this July, the Special Cell had arrested two more accomplices of Fazlu who disclosed that they were asked to extort Rs. 25 lakhs from a school principal at Saraswati Vihar in North-West Delhi. Interestingly, Fazlu made several calls to both victims, implying that he was keen to get the money.

Earlier, however, underworld dons like Dawood Ibrahim, Chhota Shakeel, Abu Salem and Chhota Rajan were used to targeting top businessmen for crores of rupees, especially in Mumbai.

In a case reported in 2001, certain Uttar Pradesh-based henchmen working for Dawood, Abu Salem and Guddu Bhai, had kidnapped Arun Gupta, the owner of Ashoka Masala of Kanpur, and demanded Rs. 25 crores as ransom. Mr. Gupta was released only after his family paid the ransom amount through the `hawala' channel. "On numerous such instances, we found that they were extorting money from big industrialists and property dealers running in crores," said a police officer.

The police officer said the gradual shift in their modus operandi and demands for smaller amounts was forced by the financial crisis that gripped the Mumbai film industry where the underworld dons had invested huge sums of money. The construction business had also gone down. Meanwhile, in the post-Babri Masjid demolition phase, the split among the underworld dons, Dawood Ibrahim and Chhota Rajan, led to a series of gang wars, debilitating them.

Simultaneous police encounters and arrests of their accomplices broke their back, forcing them to restrict their activities. The accomplices who had fled to the Capital in search of safe haven were either arrested or eliminated by the police. Those trying to extort Delhi-based businessmen were also pinned down effectively. To tighten the noose further, the Delhi police promulgated the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) in 2001, under which two aides of Abu Salem were booked for an extortion bid on a South Delhi-based businessman.

With Dawood, who is allegedly hiding in Pakistan, restricting his activities after he was added in the U.S. list of wanted criminals, and Abu Salem languishing in a Portugal jail, the other underworld dons are now targeting relatively small businessmen. However, to their misfortune, more and more businessmen are now reporting extortion bids to the police.

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