The accused threatened to kill the man if he failed to arrange the money, police said (Representational)
A 28-year-old man was arrested and two juveniles were apprehended for allegedly trying to extort Rs 10 lakh from a businessman by posing as members of the Neeraj Bawana gang, police said on Friday.
The two juveniles, who are school friends, had created a profile on Instagram in the name of Sahil shooter and started following similar accounts on the social media platform, they said.
According to the police, the duo came in contact with Rohit Bhardwaj, the third accused, over Instagram and started chatting with him. During the conversation, Bhardwaj shared details of a man who runs an IT company in Paschim Vihar and hatched a conspiracy to extort Rs 10 lakh from him by posing as members of the Neeraj Bawana gang.
On Tuesday, the businessman was in his office when he got a call through VoIP from one of the accused who introduced himself as a member of the Neeraj Bawana gang and demanded Rs 10 lakh, the police said.
The accused threatened to kill him if he failed to arrange the amount by the evening, they added.
The businessman lodged a complaint at Punjabi Bagh police station in west Delhi, following which a case was registered and a team was constituted to investigate the matter, Deputy Commissioner of Police (West) Urvija Goel said.
Bhardwaj was arrested and the two juveniles were apprehended from Alipur on Tuesday in connection with the incident, she said.
The accused's mobile phones were seized and a car was impounded, police added.