The investigation into Mohammad Dilshad Naushad — the accused who allegedly sent threatening emails to NCP leader Zeeshan Siddique and Indian cricketer Rinku Singh — has taken an international twist. The police have now discovered that Naushad had also sent extortion emails to a prominent foreign businessman, demanding a hefty ransom and invoking the name of the underworld outfit D-Company to instil fear.
According to sources, the 33-year-old accused from Darbhanga, Bihar, operated with a sophisticated cyber setup and sent the threatening emails from abroad, using foreign IP addresses to mask his location. The Anti-Extortion Cell (AEC) of the Mumbai Crime Branch has filed a 90-page charge sheet in the case, which includes statements from eight witnesses — among them two event managers associated with Rinku Singh.
Investigators said one of the managers had earlier worked with the cricketer, while the other continues to handle his event coordination. Their statements, recorded in August 2025, confirmed that multiple emails had been sent to Rinku Singh’s professional account in February. The first email appeared harmless, couched as a polite request for financial help, but was soon followed by a blunt demand for R5 crore, signed ‘D-Company’.
The email went unread until the Mumbai Crime Branch, while probing the Zeeshan Siddique extortion case, stumbled upon the same ID in Naushad’s email trail and alerted the cricketer’s management team.
Between April 19 and April 21, Naushad had similarly targeted Zeeshan Siddique, demanding Rs 10 crore and threatening that he would “meet the same fate as his father” if the money was not paid. The Bandra police initially registered an FIR, later transferring the case to the AEC.
The emails were traced to an IP address based in Trinidad and Tobago, where Naushad worked as a labourer, and with the help of Interpol and the Ministry of External Affairs, he was extradited to India — marking one of the rare cases of extradition in a cyber-extortion probe.
An officer said Dilshad was “highly skilled in cyber manipulation” and exploited technology to send threatening messages from multiple locations abroad. “He used the D-Company name only to create fear and extract money. So far, no direct link to any organised syndicate has been established,” the officer added.
Investigators are now probing whether Dilshad acted alone or was part of a wider cyber-extortion network that may have targeted high-profile individuals, both in India and overseas.
