With the arrest of five men, Police on Saturday claimed to have busted a fake BSES extortion racket in South Delhi.

The accused used to tamper with electric meters and then extort money on pretext of settlement.

Police said that the gang used to tamper with the seal of electric meters and create a fault in the electric meters of the people to extort money.

Those arrested have been identified as Sahil Goel (27), a resident of New Govindpura, Ajay Kumar (37), a resident of Shahdara, Amit Kumar Tomar (37), a resident of West Rohtash Nagar, Naresh Antil (48) and Amardeep Sharma (37), both residents of Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh.

Police said that Sahil was the kingpin of the gang while Amardeep, Naresh and Amit had earlier worked with BSES on contract basis as ‘Field Executives’.

According to Chandan Chowdhary, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (South), on January 18, a person reported at CR Park police station that four-five persons from BSES went to his house and told him that there was tampering in his electric meter and he has to pay fine of Rs 5 lakh to BSES.

“The complainant further told police that the men then asked him to pay Rs 50,000 as bribe if he wants to settle the matter and they would sort out this matter. After negotiation, he agreed to delete the evidence in Rs 32,000. On statement of the complainant, a case under relevant sections of IPC was registered and investigation was taken up,” said the DCP.

“During investigation, the team so formed was briefed about the ramification of the case and directed to work in tandem on different aspects of the case. Accordingly, the complainant convinced the accused persons to pay the bribe and called them under Savitri flyover to pay the bribe,” said the DCP.

A trap was laid by the police team under Savitri Flyover and when the complainant delivered Rs 32,000 to the accused, a raid was conducted and Naresh and Amit were nabbed.

“Subsequently, during interrogation, they disclosed that they have formed a gang which is being operated by Sahil Goel. Several raids were conducted and other accused Amardeep, Ajay and Sahil were arrested from different places,” said the official.

On interrogation, it was revealed that Ajay had a main role in the gang and he used to tamper the seal of the electric meter and create a fault in the electric meter of the victim to extort money from him.

“If some victim used to ask for an I-card, Amardeep, Amit and Naresh used to show their identity cards to win over the trust of the consumer of BSES,” said the official.