'Used to take Rs 5,000 every week from my only source of livelihood': 3 cops & SPO extort money from street vendor in Gurgaon

Bagish Jha / TNN / Updated: Apr 11, 2025, 08:40 IST

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In Gurgaon, vendor Gulab Singh's hidden camera exposed a police extortion ring, leading to the arrest of three policemen and an SPO. Facing threats to shut down his tea and paratha shop, Gulab documented the officers' demands for weekly protection money.

'Used to take Rs 5,000 every week from my only source of livelihood': 3 cops & SPO extort money from street vendor in Gurgaon

GURGAON: Three policemen and an SPO have been arrested after a street vendor's camera trap exposed their involvement in extortion. What started as one officer's demand for protection money soon grew into a routine activity involving the cops. Vendor Gulab Singh from Bihar's Darbhanga gathered video evidence of illegal payments before reporting to the police commissioner. It led to strict action �?all four policemen were suspended, arrested and charged with extortion and corruption.

3 cops & SPO extort money from street vendor, arrested in Gurgaon

The policemen �?including an assistant sub-inspector (ASI), a head constable, a constable and the SPO �?were arrested on Tuesday (April 8). The officers from Sector 17/18 police station allegedly threatened to remove the vendor's shop unless he paid them a fixed amount every week.
Harassed by regular extortion from the cops, Gulab filed the complaint with the police commissioner along with details of bank transfers and recordings from CCTV showing policemen collecting money. The money was collected from Gulab in Feb and March.

"Soon after receiving complaints, an inquiry was initiated to verify the allegation and appropriate action was taken," a senior police officer said.
Based on the report, a case was registered under Section 308(2) (extortion) of the BNS and Section 7 (bribery) of the Prevention of Corruption Act at Sector 17/18 police station on April 8 against ASI Bijender, head constable Rajbir, constable Ajay Kumar and SPO Anil. All four of them were arrested soon after the case was filed and taken into one-day police remand. On completion of their police remand, the accused were produced before the court and sent to judicial custody on Wednesday.
Gulab runs a tea and paratha shop from his roadside jhuggi near the gate of Q-Building in Sector 18 and resides in the shop. Gulab, in his complaint, alleged that head constable Rajbir used to visit his shop and forced him to close the shop on multiple occasions. Rajbir then demanded Rs 5,000 per week to allow him to run the shop. "The shop was my only source of livelihood, so I agreed. Since then, Rajbir used to come every week to collect Rs 5,000," Gulab said.
After some time, constable Ajay and SPO Anil, who were posted on the ERV (emergency response vehicle), started to threaten to close the shop. On several occasions, they forced Gulab to close the shop at night. "On their demand, I started to pay Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 to Ajay and Anil every week," he said.
The weekly payment to the three cops started to make a hole in the profit from the shop. Singh installed a CCTV camera in his jhuggi and started to record the money transactions. On some occasions, the cops also made him transfer money through UPI. ASI Bijender, who knew Gulab for the last four-five years, started to collect Rs 10,000 per month from him. Once, he also made him transfer the money to his bank account.
After receiving the complaint, an inquiry was initiated under ACP (Udyog Vihar) Naveen Sharma and statements of all four cops were recorded.
In their statements, the cops said they spent all the money they had extprted from the vendor.

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