By IANS
New Delhi : A prominent Nepali member of a crime network known as International Black Spider Group has been arrested for his alleged involvement in at least 20 cases of extortion in India and Nepal, Delhi Police said Thursday.
Sandeep Pathak alias Milan Lama, the kingpin of the group and citizen of Nepal, was nabbed late Wednesday from Ranjit Nagar in west Delhi. Police seized a pistol and five live cartridges from his possession.
Police had already announced a reward of Rs.50,000 on him.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Alok Kumar said Lama, 30, was arrested after a prominent businessman of Kathmandu registered an extortion complaint March 19 here stating that Lama had demanded a ransom of Rs.100 million.
“A case was registered and during investigation the caller was identified as Milan Lama of the International Black Spider Group, a gang of extortionists whose tentacles are spread into India and Nepal,” Kumar said.
“It was also found that the group is based in Nepal and Lama has been frequently visiting other south Asian countries to avoid police detection. He was arrested after the technical and manual surveillance of nearly seven months,” Kumar added.
The police official said Lama in his interrogations revealed that he was addicted to gambling and was regular in the casinos in Nepal.
“Lama formed a gang in association with his schoolmates Sudhir Thapa, Ganesh Lama, Santosh and two sharp shooters Ganesh Kharki and Akash Kedar in 2002. It was also found that some of his associates are based in Bangkok.
The gang started threatening affluent doctors, hospital owners, manpower agents, and other prominent business people and asked them to pay extortion money or face the consequences. They killed some of the businessmen who refused to pay up,” Kumar said.
Kumar said Lama used to make extortion calls from Delhi, West Bengal, Bihar and Jharkhand to the victims in Nepal, while his associates were assigned to collect the extortion money in both Nepal and India.