Ghaziabad: The Nandgram Police has arrested seven people, including a woman, for extorting Rs 2.25 crore by holding a bizman hostage, an official said on Saturday.
Police had received information on October 15 collecting a ransom of Rs 2.75 crore from one Shashank Sharma of Delhi’s Janak Puri, DCP (City) Nipun Agarwal told the media here.
“The accused were headed to Dehradun to divide the ransom when we arrested them,” he said.
Police said that Rs 25 lakh was recovered from the SUV the people arrested were travelling in.
The accused were identified as Shilpa Tyagi, Harshit, Kartik, Pradeep, Pitamber, and Nishant Tyagi — all residents of Delhi — and Nimish of Modinagar, they said.
Police recovered Rs 2 crore from Nimish’s house in Modinagar after interrogation.
Shilpa Tyagi, the wife of Ishant Tyagi — the mastermind behind extorting ransom from the bizman — told the police that Sharma was known to her husband who was aware about his financial status.
Police said that Ishant called Sharma on the pretext of business on October 14 and held him hostage in a flat.
Ishant later demanded a ransom of Rs 6 crore, they said.
The DCP said that he “managed to extort Rs 2.75 crore from Sharma’s friends and freed him.”
“The remaining amount was to be paid in installments of Rs 25 lakh per month,” said the officer.
Police said that Ishant is currently lodged in a jail in Dehradun.
(Published 21 October 2023, 18:00 IST)