The Punjab police on Tuesday said they busted an extortion racket backed by gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, with the arrest of its two key operatives after recovering two .32 bore pistols along with two live cartridges from their possession.
According to authorities, those arrested have been identified as Tarlochan Singh alias Rahul Cheema of Sector 26, Chandigarh and Harish alias Harry alias Baba of village Bupania in district Jhajjar, Haryana.
The assistant inspector general (AIG) of police, SAS Nagar, Ashwani Kapur said that the arrests followed after his team got information that Lawrence Bishnoi gang members had made threatening calls to some businessmen for extortion and even planned to execute target killings.
Police teams subsequently arrested accused Tarlochan Singh after recovering one pistol along with two live cartridges on Monday, followed by the arrest of accused Harish alias Harry with one pistol on Tuesday, he said.
The AIG said that preliminary investigations have revealed that both the arrested persons wanted to get fame and had made profiles on different social media platforms where they used to flaunt arms and ammunition to lure the youth and radicalise them to work for the gang. Accused persons used to offer high-profile lifestyles to innocent youth by promising them a good amount of money in return, he said.
He said the police had procured three days of police remand of both the accused persons after producing them in the local court.
