Traffic cops, officials blackmailed using video clips: 2 more linked to ‘sticker extortion racket’ arrested, 10 held so far

Sanjay Gupta, one of the two suspects recently arrested, was a member of the Raju Meena Gang, said police. He was apprehended on January 20. “He was trained for preparing videos for the purpose of extortion after manipulating traffic police personnel and officials,” DCP (Crime) Sanjeev Yadav said. He is the third arrest from the Raju Meena gang.

Amir Chaudhary, the other suspect, worked for the Jeeshan Ali gang. He was caught while he was blackmailing a Delhi Traffic police officer on January 17. “He is a cab driver by profession and also a key associate of Jeeshan Ali. He was apprehended red-handed during an extortion bid,” DCP Yadav said.

A police officer, privy to the details of the probe into the racket, gave details of the operation. “The gangs allegedly told the traffic personnel in their area about the colour of the stickers that the vehicles — that had to be cleared — would have. In exchange for a commission, they would allegedly let the vehicles pass. If some officers didn’t comply, drivers were ordered to offer them bribes and then record them. Once they realised that traffic cops could be threatened with this trick, the gang stopped giving them commission and resorted to blackmail to run the syndicate,” the officer said.

“In case a traffic officer concerned didn’t comply, the gangs allegedly said they would pay the challans afterwards. They would then collect the challans, sometimes worth Rs 30,000 each or more from the transporters, use their connections with traffic police officers and clear them for Rs 100-Rs 200 at Lok Adalats,” the officer added.

The gangs operated in different parts of the Capital. The drivers in the Trans-Yamuna region were handled by Raju Meena, those in West Delhi were under Jeeshan Ali and the ones in Outer Delhi came under Rinku Rana. The syndicate had been operating for nearly 15 years, and was set up after Raju allegedly promised some traffic police officers a monthly bribe, according to sources.

Rajkumar alias Raju Meena and Jeeshan Ali were allegedly leading the gangs that exploited transporters and government officers through systematic extortion. Police claimed they have arrested three associates of Jeeshan — Chandan Kumar Chaudhary, Dilip Kumar, and Dina Nath Chaudhary — who were responsible for field operations and sticker distribution.

The third gang was busted with the arrest of main handler Rinku Rana (38), and Sonu Sharma (33), from Sanjay Gandhi Transport Nagar. Sharma, a police officer said, was operating a WhatsApp group where he gave real time alerts to drivers about the possible traffic routes and checkpoints — where rules could be bypassed — after getting tipped off.