Music teachers held for extortion

The two came up with the plan to extort money from houses where Sinha had taught music. Together, the two made a series of intimidating phone calls and sent threat mail to residents of New Friends colony. The victims include Umesh Shroff of Hyatt Regency, the Rajgarhia family and Rajesh Verma, a senior vice-president with Milk Foods Limited.

Police investigations against the two teachers started after Verma lodged a complaint with the South District police. A preliminaryinvestigation revealed that all the phone calls were made from PCOs in different parts of the city, including Vasant Kunj, Mayur Vihar, Ghaziabad and the Old Delhi Railway Station. Based on descriptions obtained from the PCO operators, profiles of the men were drawn and circulated in the city.

The police also found out that calls made around 4 pm were generally from the Hauz Rani area, near Malviya Nagar. Accordingly, they deployed extra forces in the area. The descriptions of the two men were also circulated to the 500-odd PCOs there.

Meanwhile, Verma had received a number of calls from the two. His driver was supposed to deliver the money to them on two occasions October 26 and 30 outside Moti Sweets in Malviya Nagar. The driver was to hand over the money to a person dressed in a red shirt who would identify himself as kaala gulab. On both occasions the driver came back with the money.

When the teachers called on October 31, they were told that Verma would be available on the phone only ataround 4 pm, thus ensuring that the two called from Hauz Rani. The call was traced and the two arrested.