The Hindu : New Delhi News : `Gangster had demanded protection money from M.P. liquor baron'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jul 15, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

`Gangster had demanded protection money from M.P. liquor baron'

Devesh K. Pandey

Indore-based businessman was allegedly threatened, given a Thailand number to speak with Chhota Rajan From the first call for Rs. 5 crores, gangster Vicky had scaled down the amount to Rs. 50 lakhs

NEW DELHI: Vicky Malhotra, the alleged hit-man of the underworld don, Chhota Rajan, who was arrested along with his accomplice by the Mumbai police here in the Capital on July 11, had been assigned the task of extorting protection money from a Madhya Pradesh-based liquor baron. According to the police, his first call to the businessman was a demand for Rs. 5 crores.

A few weeks ago, a person lodged a complaint with the MIG police station in Indore alleging that he had received a threat call from Chhota Rajan's men demanding protection money.

The complainant was Suresh Barodia, a liquor baron, who owns Mahakaal Distilleries and a hotel in Indore.

Mr. Barodia told the police that he received a call on his mobile phone in which the caller identified himself as Chhota Rajan's accomplice, Vicky Malhotra, and said he was one of the persons that the underworld don had identified for extortion. The caller threatened Mr. Barodia with dire consequences and gave him a Thailand number on which he was asked to speak with Chhota Rajan. It is learnt that initially Mr. Barodia did not take the threat seriously, but when he received another call from Vicky, he reportedly dialled the Thailand number and talked to a person who identified himself as Chhota Rajan.

The person on the other side directed him to follow Vicky's direction and pay Rs. 5 crores. Meanwhile, the Indore police learnt that one of the initial calls made to Mr. Barodia had originated from a Mumbai public booth.

They then suspected that Vicky was operating from Mumbai and hence they contacted the Crime Branch of the Mumbai police and provided the Thailand number along with that of the public booth for further probe.

Interestingly, when the police intensified their efforts to track down Vicky, they learnt that the calls to Mr. Barodia were coming from an unidentified number.

The police suspected that the mobile number was not reflected in the receiver's set as the caller had asked for a private number from the SIM provider.

While negotiations for the extortion money were going on with Mr. Barodia, the Indore police -- in coordination with Mumbai's Crime Branch -- were zeroing in on Vicky as he was said to be a close accomplice of Chhota Rajan.

It is learnt that a few days before he was arrested in New Delhi, the Mumbai police found out that the last extortion call by Vicky, in which he had scaled down the amount to Rs. 50 lakhs, had originated from a Delhi number.

This time round the police were lucky as they were able to track down the number from where the call had been made. Subsequently, a team of Mumbai's Crime Branch was dispatched to the Capital to trace Vicky. The Delhi police were kept out of the operation for obvious reasons.

On July 11, the team intercepted a vehicle on Panchsheel Marg in which their man was travelling. He was arrested and his accomplice, Fareed, was arrested from Dwarka in South-West Delhi.

They were both taken to Mumbai the same evening.

Initial investigations revealed that for the past several months, Vicky had been shuttling between Delhi and Mumbai at the instance of Chhota Rajan and his "contacts".

According to sources, agencies other than the Indore and the Mumbai police were also in the know of his activities for quite some time.

Now that Vicky, who is allegedly involved in at least seven murder cases, is in the custody of the Mumbai police, a Madhya Pradesh police team has been sent there to pursue their case.

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