JOIN USMaking a mockery of mobile jammers in the Central Prison at Parappana Agrahara, an inmate not only made an extortion call to a businessman in Vijayanagar, but also intimidated him by getting his associates to vandalise his car when he refused to pay up.
According to the police, 21-year-old Kushal Kumaraswamy, a resident of Amarjyothi Nagar, who runs a car accessory business on pipeline road in Vijayanagar, received a call a week ago from Ravi alias Gunda, a prison inmate who asked him to hand over Rs 30,000 to his associates.
Ravi told Kumaraswamy to keep the cash ready and his “boys” would collect it. However, Kumaraswamy ignored him.
On Thursday, when Ravi's aides came to get the cash from Kumaraswamy at his house, he refused to pay them and also threatened to call the police.
Enraged by this, the gang not only assaulted Kumaraswamy and vandalised his car using a boulder, but also robbed him of Rs. 10,000 at knife point, the police said. Later, Kumaraswamy lodged a police complaint. Based on the complaint, the police picked up Naveen alias Bunk Seena (20), Kiran Kumar (19), and Aakash (19).
The police have identified the fourth culprit as Praveen alias Ole, who is yet to be arrested. Preliminary investigations revealed that Ravi had used the mobile phone from the prison to make extortion calls to Kumaraswamy.
"We are investigating how Ravi managed to get a mobile phone despite heavy security at the prison and made calls when jammers are installed all over the prison.
We will prepare a report and send it to the jail authorities,” M N Anucheth, DCP West said, adding that Ravi has also been named prime suspect in the robbery and extortion case.
Meanwhile, DGP Prisons, H N Sathyanarayana Rao told DH, “I am unaware of any such incident. Let the police make a report and send it to us and we will initiate an enquiry.”