8230;And one day they erred

GURGAON, MARCH 25: For the past two months, they remained a mystery. However, their modus operandi was plain and simple -- using cash-car...

GURGAON, MARCH 25: For the past two months, they remained a mystery. However, their modus operandi was plain and simple 8212; using cash-card operated mobile phones, they handed out extortion threats to traders, doctors and jewellers in Gurgaon. But no one had an inkling as to who they were and from where they operated.

Their plan seemed to be impeccable, until they committed a mistake that sealed their fate. The four extortionists Dalip Kumar, Mahender, Dara Singh and Ashok Kumar, finally landed into the police8217;s net. But tracking them down was not so easy. Behind the success was days of hard work, systematic tapping and monitoring of their cellular phones and the help provided by the Delhi police.

The police had been tapping their cellulars, taking print outs of outgoing and incoming calls and monitoring their conversation. But the extortionists didn8217;t make a wrong move initially, which made it impossible to detect them. They had four mobile phones but were using only two for making threat calls. The other two were used for their personal communication. That meant that only two mobile numbers were on the watch list of the police. But then how did the police manage to track them down?

Communication experts say that every cellular phone instrument has a specific code number which automatically gets registered into the computer of the cellphone company, the moment a cash card is inserted in it.

The breakthrough came when Dalip Kumar, the mastermind of the extortion racket disposed off his mobile phone and bought a new mobile phone, with a new cash card. He, however, committed a grave error by handing over his old cash card the one used for making threat calls to one of his accomplices, Mahender. Till now, Mahender had not used his mobile for making threat calls.

Now he inserted the cash card given by Dalip into his instrument and made a few threat calls. But the moment he inserted it into his cellular phone, his instrument8217;s code No. got registered in the cellphone company8217;s computer and since the police was monitoring this particular cash-card number, he too joined the suspects8217; list.

Mahender, would take out this cash card and replace it with a new one, whenever, he had to use his cellular phone to make personal calls. However, he was oblivious to the fact that now his phone code was with the police and all incoming and outgoing calls from that instrument were being tapped.

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On the intervening night of March 20 and 21, joint teams of Gurgaon and Delhi police launched quot;Operation X-ray.quot; Around 200 armed police personnel went to 22 places in Guraon and Delhi, where the extortionist had made calls from his personal mobile. The police men questioned around 50-60 persons and then zeroed in on to five men, before getting hold of the four extortionists.

Incriminating evidence like a telephone diary having the telephone numbers of persons to whom threat calls were made, cellular phones, a visiting card, with the cellular numbers of the group members, weapons and an amount of of Rs 3. 60 lakh was recovered from the possession of the extortionists.

Senior Superintendent of Police Navdeep Singh Virk said that two prominent doctors, who had received threats had actually paid an amount of Rs 2.50 lakh and Rs 5 lakhs respectively to the extortionists. Deputy Superintendent of Police, Anil Kumar Yadav said that during interrogation, Dalip Kumar revealed that got the idea of forming an extortion gang, after watching Satya, a film based on the Mumbai underworld.

The accused, meanwhile have been remanded to police custody till March 27. DSP, Anil Yadav, who along with Inspector Raman Lamba of the Delhi Police co-ordinated the operation said that the police have decided to request the district bar council to direct all lawyers not to plead the case of the accused.