Man with ‘seven dubious names’ caught running extortion racket

Akash Dhanurkar

Pimpri Chinchwad Police has busted an extortion racket being run by a man, Virendrakumar Punia, who held seven dubious names to run the cargo services, under which he used to run an extortion racket, claiming to be associated with renowned cargo company, ‘VRL CARGO’.

According to the information provided by Pimpri Chinchwad Police Commissioner, IPS Krishna Prakash, who took a note of the extortion racket after Shivajirao Gawde, a resident of Karvenagar, who lodged a complaint with the Pimpri Chinchwad Police on December 4, on behalf of his friend, Rajesh Naik, who was duped by Punia. Rajesh Naik had recently shifted from Kothrud to Mangalore and he had paid around 8,000 rupees to Punia to transport his vehicle to Mangalore from Kothrud, which was a negotiated amount to 11,000 rupees for transporting the goods of worth rupees 1,60, 000. Punia, who dubbed his name as Sonu Chudhary, picked up the vehicle from the house of Naik, and then demanded extra 9,000 rupees after receiving the agreed payment of 8, 000 rupees through Paytm on Punia’s friend’s account ( 9024614094 ). However, he did not transport the vehicle, rather he kept on demanding the money, in fact threatening Naik to face consequences if the money is not sent.

The details of Punia was available on the fake and made up website named as, ‘VRL Cargo’, which he was presenting his firm under the banner of VRL Cargo, illegally. Sonu Chaudhari, Sonu Kumar, Vikram Singh were the identified dubious names that were held by Punia to run the firm. He was arrested from the transport Nagar of Nigdi, after investigating his whereabouts from Shivraj Tempo services, which were used to transport the goods from the consumer’s place to go down. After tracking the contact number of Punia, Police were successful in catching him.

While raising awareness on the issue, IPS Krishna Prakash said, “Firstly, citizens must check the authenticity of the service provider and the public reviews before making him any payment for the unconfirmed service. Secondly, the companies, too, must be on high alert as their names have come into play.”

The team of anti-extortion cell is said to be searching for rest of team of Punia, who are said to have 7 – 8 people, as we learnt from our sources in the Pimpri Chinchwad Police. These sources are spread in different states, now.