Chandigarh: Police yet to recover ₹26 L in SI Phogat extortion case
Dismissed police sub-inspector Naveen Phogat surrendered in court but Chandigarh Police have been unable to recover ₹26 lakh from him. Phogat and others had extorted ₹1.01 crore from a businessman after kidnapping him and threatening to kill him. Phogat claims the money is with Parveen Shah, brother of slain gangster Sonu Shah, who is yet to be arrested. Police are tracking details about who was helping Phogat hide. Other accused are still on the run and non-bailable warrants have been issued against them.
Even after the dismissed police sub-inspector (SI) Naveen Phogat had surrendered in court on Friday, Chandigarh Police have been unable to recover around ₹26 lakh from him.
SI Naveen Phogat along with others had extorted ₹1.01 crore from a Bathinda-based businessman after kidnapping him and threatening to kill him.
As per senior police officers, some new leads have come out after questioning Phogat, who is currently on police remand, and will again be produced before court on November 27. However, they have been unable to recover the ₹26 lakh from the entire extorted amount.
As per sources, Phogat claimed that the money is not with him but with Parveen Shah, brother of slain gangster Sonu Shah, who is yet to be arrested.
Sources said that while Phogat was on the run, he was out of Chandigarh and had gone to various places in Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. Police is tracking details about who was helping him hide. Phogat had surrendered as after three non-bailable warrants were issued against him and it was likely that proclaimed offender proceedings would be initiated against him, had he not surrendered. The police plans to initiate these proceedings against the other accused, who are still on the run.
Three other co-accused are identified as Onkar, alias Lucky, alias Grewal, and Pawan, both residents of Pathankot, and Parveen Shah. Non-bailable warrants have been issued against them.
Two more accused, Jitender, who runs an immigration consultancy in Aerocity, Mohali, and Goyal’s friend Sarvesh are alos on the run. All the accused are facing a case of extortion, kidnapping, cheating, criminal intimidation and criminal conspiracy.
As per the victim, Sanjay Goyal, a wholesale trader of split chickpeas (chana dal) in Bathinda, the accused called him to Chandigarh on August 4, offering to exchange ₹2,000 currency notes at a profit of 5%. When he brought ₹1.01 crore to Chandigarh on the insistence of his friend, Sarvesh, who runs a money exchange business in Bathinda, the accused extorted the amount by faking a raid in Sector 40.
The SI, along with other accused, allegedly threatened to kill him and implicate him in false arms and drugs cases, following which, on August 5, he lodged a complaint at the Sector 39 police station, where the SI was posted. At the police station Phogat returned ₹75 lakh to Goyal in exchange for maintaining silence, before escaping from the station.
Phogat had surrendered in court on Friday and police had sought fiv-day remand for him but the court had granted three days’ remand.