But posing as Ajay Pandit has landed Shailender Kumar (27) in trouble from both ends. Sources said now gangster Babloo Srivastava, serving his term in Ghaziabad’s Dasna Jail, has instructed his gang members to hunt down Kumar for using his gang’s name.

A ‘fresher’ in crime, sources said Kumar had made extortion calls to the owners of Kumar Sarees Emporium, Kalra Sweets and Taneja Sweets. His demand: Rs 5 lakh from the first two, and Rs 10 lakh from the latter.

According to sources, Kumar took to crime to repay his debts, as his car accessories business in Ashok Nagar was running in huge losses. He reportedly watched television programmes on underworld dons and learnt to speak the way they do. “When he made his first call to the owner of Kalra Sweets, he got excited and overused threatening words. The owner immediately identified him as fraud and complained to the police,” an officer said. “In the next call to Taneja Sweets’ owner, he adopted a formal and strict tone, but again failed to intimidate the owner.”

Learning from his mistakes, sources said, Kumar then studied his next target for a week. On the day he made the third call, he visited Kumar Sarees and saw what the owner’s wife was wearing and accordingly made the call.

He did not use threatening words this time but told the owner what his wife was wearing and where his only son studied. This time he succeeded in intimidating the owner, who paid him Rs 1.5 lakh.

The police said the motive of the crime was simply his finance crunch. In the end, Kumar did not even have enough money to make the extortion calls — he borrowed money to make the calls, sources said.

From Rs 1.5 lakh got from the saree showroom owner, he paid his loan of Rs 1.20 lakh, his electricity and phone bills and gave his daughter’s school fees of Rs 15,000.

He had only Rs 1,400 left at the time of arrest.