Police said on Thursday this was the second time that Twinkle, who lives in a premium luxury apartment on Golf Course Road, was arrested. July was the previous time, also in connection with extortion, but she got bail in August.
Twinkle, who is in her late 20s, is a lawyer by training and comes from a small business family in Jacobpura (her father runs a furniture business).
According to investigators, Twinkle was introduced to Kaushal’s close associate Amit Dagar in 2016 through one of her friends who was in a relationship with another gang member, Sandeep alias Bandar.
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That year, Kaushal, Dagar, Sandeep and other gangsters had to keep a low profile to evade arrest after they allegedly killed a rival, Mahesh Attack.
A police officer said the gangsters had to frequently change their positions and needed help from women to rent places to stay. It was around this time that Dagar sought help from Sandeep, who – in turn – asked his girlfriend to find a friend.
It didn’t take long after their introduction for Twinkle and Dagar to become partners. Within a few months, they eloped and she married Dagar, living with him at different locations even while he was trying to escape arrest, police sources said. Twinkle and Dagar have two children.
The sources said Twinkle started becoming involved in the gang’s activities from 2018 after Dagar was arrested. Her stature evolved and she became a big player for the gang in handling the extortion racket at the mandi.
Twinkle, who has an agent’s licence at the mandi, allegedly fixed the wholesale rates of vegetables and forced other agents to sell them to vendors at inflated costs. The difference between the inflated amount and the actual amount of the vegetables was pocketed by the gang, TOI had reported earlier this week.
Cops estimate the gang was collecting over Rs 35 lakh from the mandi every month.
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TOI had reported on October 4 about the arrest of 13 members of the Kaushal gang to crack down on one of NCR’s largest extortion rackets at the Khandsa mandi. The arrests were made months after the National Investigation Agency alerted police about the extortion racket, which is believed to be one of the main revenue sources for the gang. As none of the vendors was willing to speak up for fear of reprisal, cops went undercover as vegetable sellers to document evidence about the gang’s operation.
Apart from Twinkle’s role in fixing prices, the gang had monopolised the sale of polythene bags to vendors and traders at the mandi as well as the supply of electricity through generators.
“On Thursday, Twinkle was produced before a court and sent to judicial custody,” DCP (crime) Vijay Pratap Singh said.
Named in two cases linked to the Khandsa mandi extortion racket, she has been booked under sections 384 (extortion), 34 (common intention) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC at the Shivaji Nagar police station.
