Top executive of Avantha group arrested for making extortion calls to director

On Tuesday, a complaint was received in the Delhi Police’s Special Cell on the behalf of Anil Bhargava.

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“Threatening calls were being made to Bhargava and SMS containing details of family members of the victim were sent on the cell phone number of Gautam Thapar (another top executive) as well as on the number of the Personal Secretary of the victim demanding an amount of Rs 25 crore as ‘protection money’ from the recently concluded sale of a power project of the company in Chhattisgarh to Adani Group,” said DCP Yadav.

The caller had threatened that if the demands were not fulfilled, he would eliminate the victim and also harm his children who are studying abroad. Police registered an FIR under appropriate sections.

Police said that Jaspal Singh, being among the seniors in the Thapar Group, was privy to a corporate deal of Rs 4, 200 crore made by the Avantha Group, a conglomerate Indian company led by Thapar Group.

“Investigation has revealed that Singh knew details of the company’s management including their children and a hatched a conspiracy to extort money from them to the tune of Rs 25 crore. He also knew about a recently concluded business deal and believed he could blackmail them. We are also looking at Jaspal Singh’s financials to determine motive,” a police officer said.

According to the police, Singh recruited the services of a contractual employee of the Delhi Transport corporation (DTC). DCP (special cell) Sanjeev Yadav said that Singh was arrested along with his associate Deepak Kishore (43) “Kishore was hired by Singh to execute his plan,” he added.

Sources in the police said that Singh’s plan banked on his proximity to the company’s management. “He was confident that the management would never report the extortion attempt without involving him. However, his luck ran out when the victim, Bhargava, went directly to the police,” a police officer said.

Police said that On Singh hired Deepak to blackmail Bhargava. “He gave money to Deepak to arrange a SIM card and a cell phone to make threat calls. Deepak arranged a sim card from Manipur, and made calls from Mumbai,” police said.

Jaspal Singh later drafted a text message which contained details of victim’s family, who live abroad and asked Deepak to send this as well after he arrived in Delhi. Polcie confirmed that the text message was sent to the chairman of Thapar group, Gautam Thapar and his secretary.

Responding to the threat, a FIR was filed on behalf of the director of Avantha group, who was among the members of corporate delegation along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his three nations tour to France, Germany and Canada.

Through investigation, police traced Deepak’s movement, and arrested him from Badarpur, Delhi. “During interrogation Deepak confessed his crime and named Jaspal Singh on whose orders he made those calls,” police said.

Singh was later tracked down by the police, who too surrendered by admitting his crime.

Jaspal Singh, a resident in Punjab, has been associated with the Thapar Group for 10 years. He was elevated to the head of Corporate Affairs of Ballapur Industries Limited, through the kind of rapport he maintained with his bosses, police said.