Vinit Makol alias Vinnie, 24, was arrested from Subhash Nagar last evening by personnel of Rajouri Garden police station.
"Captain Manjeet Singh Anand, who retired from Merchant Navy in 1990, and is running a real estate business in Delhi and in DLF Gurgaon, made a PCR call on Saturday and complained about messages from an unknown mobile number asking him to pay Rs 5 crore failing which he would lose his son Prabjot," said Additional Commissioner of Police (West) Ranvir Singh.
A case was registered and a special team was formed.
The mobile number from which the messages were received was put on surveillance which led police to Vinit who happened to be the brother of Prabjot's friend Sumit.
"Interestingly, Sumit Makol was having partnership with Prabjot in 'Aero Pouerto' club at NH-8, near Shiv Murti and even Vinit was Prabhot's childhood friend," said Singh.
Both the party had invested Rs 40 lakh each in the venture but later Prabjot decided to withdraw the partnership as the club was not being run properly, police said.
It further came to light that Vinit had lost around Rs 2 crore in betting on IPL cricket matches. He was helped by his friend Sanjeev, who had also helped him in betting. Sanjeev was his partner in crime in their attempt to extort money from Anand, Singh said.
To make up for his loses, Vinit decided to extort money from Prabjot's father as he was aware of Anand's financial status, he said.
The accused runs a garments shop in Subash Nagar and is also in a partnership in Hammer Club and Lounge at West Gate Mall in Rajouri Garden. The mobile phone used by Vinit has been recovered from NH-8, Gurgaon and efforts are on to apprehend the co-accused Sanjeev, police said.
