Ten members of interstate syndicate indulging in extorting money from big businessmen/industrialists arrested

• Arrested persons used to extort money in the name of Enforcement Directorate.
• Arrested persons include kingpin Alex Joseph of Kerala.
• Alex, a notorious conmen is involved in importing 500 luxury cars from other countries by evading import duty of Rs.200 crores.
• Alex was also arrested in cases of DRI, CBI & ED.

A team of Special Cell/NR led by Insp. Attar Singh, Special Cell/NR has busted a syndicate which indulged in extorting money from rich businessmen/industrialists and other wealthy persons across the country. 10 members of this syndicate namely 1) Dinesh Nagpal r/o H.No. 113-A, Pandara Road, New Delhi (age-55 years) 2) Kalyan Shukla r/o H.No. 6-C, Tower-1, South City, Kolkata, West Bengal (age-36 years) 3) Gaurav Pradhan r/o H.No. 15-B, Dr. Daudar Rehman Road, near Railgate No.3, Lake Gardens, Kolkata, West Bengal (age-35 years), 4) Alex Joseph r/o D-27, South Extn, Part-II, New Delhi (age- 53 years), 5) Tarkeshwar Paswan @ Sanjay r/o Village-Munirka, Delhi (age-36 years), 6) Rakesh Kundra r/o H.No. 168, Ist Floor, Kailash Hills, East of Kailash, New Delhi (age-55 years), 7) Ericsson Massey @ D’souza s/o Emanvel Massey r/o H.No. C-1, Third Floor, Jindal Colony, Samalkha Extension, Delhi. (age-34 years), 8) Rajesh Nair r/o B-7/18/1, Safdarjung Enclave, New Delhi, 9) Mohd. Tariq r/o H.No. 8-D/1E, Hauz Rani,  Delhi. (Age-27 years) and 10) Javed Khan r/o H No. E-15, Hazi Colony, Jamia Nagar, Delhi, have been arrested in case FIR No. 89/16 dated 02/09/2016 u/s 387/389/468/471/472/511/201/120-B IPC, PS Tughlak Road, New Delhi. 14 mobile phones, one Laptop, one desktop, one Tablet and other incriminating material used for communicating with each other and in indulging in extortion have been seized. Fake blank and prepared summons of ED and other incriminating material have also been seized.

Brief facts of the case

Two businessmen of Kolkata namely Sanjay Surekha and Mahavir Aggarwal had received summon from ED, Delhi to join the investigation regarding complaints of money laundering of crores of rupees and violation of PMLA by their companies. When the two businessmen approached the office of ED, Delhi, they were shocked to know that no such summon were ever issued by their side. Kamal Singh, Assistant Director/ED, Delhi gave a written complaint in PS Tuglak Road, Delhi on 02/09/2016 that someone had sent fake summon (purported to be that of ED) to both the above businessmen by using his name and stamp and attempted to extort money from them. Above case was registered and investigation of case was transferred to Special Cell.

Sleuths of Special Cell/NR commenced the investigation and their painstaking round the clock efforts of several days finally succeeded when members of this syndicate were identified to be scattered all across the country in Kolkata, Mumbai, Kerala, Haryana, Punjab, Delhi, UP etc. Various teams were formed and raids conducted in these cities/ states to arrest them. Two accused persons namely Kalyan Shukla and Gaurav Pradhan were nabbed from Kolkata by a team led by SI Jeetendra Tiwari. Both these persons had tried to extort 5 crore rupees from Sanjay Surekha. They assured him (Sanjay Surekha) that they would get settled the matter in ED. Both of them met Sanjay Surekha in ITC Hotel, Kolkata to negotiate the deal. But Sanjay Surekha became suspicious and reported the matter to ED. Another accused Dinesh Nagpal was arrested from his residence at Pandara Road, New Delhi. Another team succeeded in arresting Alex Joseph (kingpin of the syndicate) and Sanjay Paswan from Delhi. A team led by SI Parveen conducted raids in Mumbai from where accused person Rakesh Kundra was arrested. On 14/10/2016, accused Rajesh Nair was also arrested from Delhi. At his instance, two more associates of the syndicate namely Ericsson Massey and Mohd. Tariq were arrested from Delhi on 16/10/2016. Finally, accused Javed Khan was arrested from Jamia Nagar on 19/10/2016.  

All the 10 arrested accused persons were thoroughly interrogated, during which it was revealed that Kalyan Shukla and Gaurav Pradhan provided the details of both the businessmen of Kolkata to Dinesh Nagpal. Dinesh Nagpal gave said details to Rakesh Kundra who further passed it to Alex Joseph, mastermind of this plan. Alex Joseph gave a sample summon of ED to Rajesh Nair and asked him to arrange such kind of fake summon and seals of ED. Rajesh Nair further gave this task to Ericsson Massey. Ericsson Massey sought the help of his partner Mohd. Tariq to prepare fake summon of ED. Both these persons used to run a cyber-cafe in Khirki Extension, Delhi where Mohd. Tariq after downloading the logo of ED from the official site got prepared the blank summon. Both of them procured fake seals of ED from Mewat, Haryana and finally, the Summon were dispatched to both the businessmen by Javed and Sanjay Paswan through post office. Kalyan Shukla and Gaurav Pradhan met Sanjay Surekha in hotel ITC on 25/08/2016 and negotiated the amount of extortion to be paid.

Further investigation of the case is in progress.

Profile of arrested 10 accused persons:-

1. Alex Joseph (57 yrs):-

Alex Joseph is the kingpin of this syndicate. He is the brain behind all this conspiracy to extort money from businessmen by putting them fear of implicating in cases of money laundering in ED. Modus operandi of the arrested persons was to send fake summon of ED to the big businessmen to put them under fear of ED. Then they used to send their associates to mediate and liaison with the businessmen to negotiate with them for money to close the case. These businessmen, under fear had to pay handsome amount of money to settle the matter.

Alex is a native of Kerala. His father was a school teacher. Alex has two brothers and one sister. He has two children. Alex did not get education beyond 5th class. He went to Dubai in search of work in the year 1987 and did many odd jobs in factories. He was impressed by business of illegal import of luxury cars in India from Dubai by evading of import duty. He learnt intricacies of this business. Initially he sent a car in India by purchasing it in the name of an Indian factory worker, working in Dubai and he earned Rs. 15 lacs in one deal. Thereafter, he started sending luxury cars in India on big scale. He gained knowledge that if new brand luxury cars are sent in India by showing these cars as second hand cars, he can get huge profit in this business. He used to get papers of new cars by faking of their date of purchase two years back. He used to send these new brand cars by showing them as old. He used to send cars in India in name of gullible workers in Dubai and he used to sell these cars in India to high profile persons. He kept on sending luxury cars in India on big scale. He earned huge profit of crores of Rupees by selling more than 500 such cars during 1990 to 2013.

Alex came to Delhi about 25 years ago and he is presently residing in H. No. D-27, South Ex. Part-II, Delhi. He was arrested by ED, Delhi in the year 1993 for the first time.  In the year 1997 he absconded and was declared as PO in the year 1999 in this case. DRI officials also became suspicious of activities of Alex Joseph and they initiated action against him under COFEPOSA. They took him upon their radar. DRI officials opened LOC against Alex Joseph. Alex, an intelligent conmen, continued evading DRI for about 10 years. Finally, Alex was arrested in November, 2011 at Hyderabad airport in possession of passport in name of Abey John having his own photograph. After getting bail in this case, Alex re-indulged in smuggling of imported luxury cars i.e Rolls-Royce, Mini Coopers, Marcedes, Land Cruisers, BMW, Parado, Range Rover, Hummer etc. from Dubai by evading import duty. DRI continued tracking Alex and came to know about big scale of smuggling of cars by Alex. He was arrested by ACB, CBI, Kochi on 03/02/2014 from hotel Taj Mansingh Palace, Delhi in the case of import of 33 luxury cars in India by evading import duty. Romesh Sharma, a notorious conmen himself had also received car from Alex.

2. Dinesh Nagpal (56 years):-

He is old resident of Paharganj, Delhi. His father was a middle class person. His mother was house wife. Dinesh has two brothers three sisters. Dinesh Nagpal got married with Isabella. His wife is working as Superintendent of nurses in Kalawati Saran Hospital, Delhi. Dinesh has two sons namely Maxwell and Deniss. Both sons are in Entertainment sector. He lives in a government quarter at Pandara Road, allotted to his wife. Dinesh Nagpal obtained details of businessman of Kolkata. He assigned the task of extorting money from these two businessmen to Kalyan Shukla and Gaurav Pradhan.

Dinesh Nagpal passed his 12th class and thereafter he went to Dayal Singh college for graduation but did not completed. After study he started his construction business and developers in Mumbai and Delhi. In the year 2015, he met with Rakesh Kundra through a famous advocate namely Rizwan Merchant in Mumbai who was handling cases of land disputes of Dinesh. In April 2016, Dinesh Nagpal was introduced with Alex Joseph by Rizwan. Dinesh met with Kalyan Shukla in the house of JK Shroaf, a famous businessman of Kolkata. He alongwith Rakesh Kundra and Alex planned to extort money from businessmen, industrialists and other wealthy persons by sending them fake summons by ED and thereafter negotiating with them through their mediators.

3. Rakesh Kundra (56 yrs):-

He is permanent resident of Delhi. He alongwith his family has been residing in self owned house No. 168, 1st Floor, Kailash Hills, East of Kailash, New Delhi. He is graduate from Khalsa College, Delhi University. Rakesh Kundra has one sister. Rakesh Kundra got married with Sarla, who is doing garment business. Rakesh Kundra has one son who is a Admission Manager in Ansal University, Gurgaon, Haryana. Rakesh Kundra is a financial consultant and running a finance company in the name of RK Associates. He is a close friend of a famous advocate Rizwan Merchant in Mumbai. In the April’2016, Rakesh Kundra was introduced with Alex Joseph and Dinesh Nagpal by Rizwan.

4. Kalyan Shukla (age-35 years):-

He is a resident of Kolkata, West Bengal. He got education upto B. Com 1st year. His father was a businessman. He is unmarried and he has two married sisters. Kalyan Shukla is residing in posh area of South City, Kolkata. He is director of a company in the name of Harmony Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. Company since February 2011. He used to organize events and doing advertisement in various parts of West Bengal and rest of India. He has good political connections in West Bengal. Accused Dinesh Nagpal met Kalyan Shukla in April 2016 in the house of Shri J.K. Sharrof, famous businessman of Kolkata. Kalyan Shukla was introduced to Dinesh Nagpal by J.K. Sharrof. Kalyan Shukla mediated with Sanjay Surekha as a part of conspiracy with Dinesh Nagpal to extort money from him.  

5. Gaurav Pradhan (age-35 years):-

He is a resident of Kolkata, West Bengal. He is graduate. His father is in a steel business. Gaurav is unmarried. He is running two companies namely Shanti Deal Trade Pvt. Ltd. and Maa Kali Trade Co-operation. His office is at 54-B, Hazra Road, Kolkata. He is close friend of Kalyan Shukla and through him he met Dinesh Nagpal. He is the person who initially made liaison with Sanjay Surekha as per directions of Kalyan Shukla to settle his matter with ED.

6. Tarkeshwar Paswan @ Sanjay (age-36 years):-

He originally belongs to Bihar but he is presently residing in Village Munirika, Delhi. He got education up to 8th standard. His father is doing agriculture work in his village. Sanjay is married and he has four married sisters. He met with Alex Joseph in office of KDR properties in South Ex. of Rampal. In this office Sanjay also met Rajesh Nair who lured him to dispatch summons to two businessman of Kolkata purported to have been issued from ED, Delhi. Tarkeshwar Paswan and Javed had posted the fake summons through Indian Postal service to Sanjay Surekha.

7. Rajesh Nair (age-36 years):-

He originally belongs to a poor family in Kerala. He is 12th pass. He is unmarried. He came to Delhi in the year 2003. He did many odd jobs like hotels in Paharganj, Petrol Pump at Asharam Chowk. He also worked in a office of sale purchase of cars at Asharam Chowk. He is a good swimmer also and he worked as swimming coach in Defence Colony Club. He came into contact with Alex Joseph in the year 2015. He is working with Alex since then and he is doing liason work. As per directions of Alex Joseph, Rajesh Nair got fake summons prepared through Ericsson Massey. Rajesh Nair filled the fake summons in his own hand writing. Rajesh Nair also stood surety of Alex Joseph in the case of ED Delhi.

8. Ericsson Massey (age-36 years):-

He was born in Delhi in the year 1982. He got education upto 12th standard from a school at Pandara Road. After schooling he worked in a cloth shop for 3-4 years. He also worked as driver of taxi for 3 years. For the last 5-6 years, he is doing liason work with MCD and other Govt. departments. He came into contact with Rajesh Nair in the office of KDR properties about two years ago. Rajesh Nair asked him to get fake summons of ED prepared to extort money from businessmen. He got these summons prepared with the help of his friend Mohd Tariq. Ericsson Massey handed over summons to Rajesh Nair.  

9. Mohd. Tariq (age-27 years):-

He was born in Mewat area of Haryana. He is graduate and he has done his BBA from IP University. He came into contact with Ericsson Massey about three years ago. Massey, who was doing work of liason in MCD and other departments. Mohd. Tariq and Massey have been running a cyber-café in partnership in Khirki Extension for last two years. Mohd. Tariq prepared fake blank summons of ED from his computer in cyber café and also procured fake seals/ stamps of ED. He received money for that.

10. Javed Khan (age-37 years):-

He is resident of Jamia Nagar, Delhi. He has 02 brothers and 04 sisters. His father is tailor. Javed is married and he has two kids. He is mechanic cum driver of cars. He ran a car workshop for about two years. He knows Rajesh Nair since year 2003. Rajesh Nair introduced him with Sanjay Paswan and Alex Joseph. Javed Khan and Sanjay Paswan sent summon to two businessmen through post office as asked by Alex Joseph and Rajesh Nair.