Lawrence Bishnoi’s extortion calls, PuneThe Wakad entrepreneur and her family were allegedly threatened with death if they did not pay Rs 5 crore by a guy claiming to be Arzoo Bishnoi, an assistant of criminal Lawrence Bishnoi. (File Image)
The Pimpri Chinchwad police registered a First Information Report (FIR) on Friday when a 34-year-old businesswoman from Wakad claimed getting extortion calls from a guy claiming to be Arzoo Bishnoi, an aide of incarcerated criminal Lawrence Bishnoi.
The woman, who operates a cloud cooking company and stays on Park Street in Wakad, registered the FIR at the Wakad police station, a police official said. She stated she received a WhatsApp call from an overseas number on Thursday. The caller is believed to have claimed to be Arzoo and demanded Rs 5 crore and threatened to harm her and her family if the money is not paid. The FIR further said that her spouse in Dubai received a similar extortion call from the same number demanding Rs 5 crore.
Senior Police Inspector Ashok Kadlag said the inquiry had been initiated. According to investigators, the calls were made using a Virtual Private Network by members of the Bishnoi gang.
Extortion calls, Bishnoi gang connection
Last month, on May 16, two men on motorcycles, reportedly acting on the directions of Kuldeep alias Kashish, a member of the Bishnoi gang who is now in jail in connection with the murder of Punjabi artist Sidhu Moosewala, opened fire at the AJ Furniture Mall in Punawale.
An audio recording and a Facebook post stated the attack was carried out by the Bishnoi gang. AJ Furniture Mall owner Jagdish Bishnoi filed a FIR stating that his business partner Ashokkumar Bishnoi was called from an overseas number on WhatsApp and was asked to pay Rs 2 crore. Ashokkumar would not part with it.
The police stated Shubham Lonkar, a member of the Bishnoi gang, was also implicated in the crime.
The owner of Veer Furniture had also filed a separate FIR at the Dighi police station as he too received similar extortion calls at the same period from the Bishnoi gang.
Pimpri-based businessman and film financer Sunny Nana Waghchoure allegedly got calls from an overseas number in January when a person purporting to be Lonkar wanted Rs 5 crore.
Gunfire outside businessman’s Pune office
The Pune city police are probing the involvement of a syndicate run by Bishnoi following four rounds of firing outside the office of a steel merchant by unidentified suspects on June 22. The dismissal was reported after claimed extortion calls were made to the merchant by suspects claiming to be part of the Bishnoi gang. No arrests have been made in this case so yet but a pharmaceutical shop owner in Wadki too had received calls from ‘the Bishnoi gang’ from an overseas number last week.
