The extortion racket already rampant in Delhi, has spread to the satellite township of Gurgaon too. Over the past two days, at least eight persons belonging to the city's affluent class have been receiving such calls. The threats and instructions are usually similar. The callers identify themselves as associates of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim and demand ``their money'', which in most cases is around Rs five lakh.

Among those who have received the threats are leading medical practitioners running private nursing homes, jewellers, cloth merchants, owners of departmental stores and automobile dealers.

Most of them have reported the incidents to the district police. Police officials, however, are tight-lipped on the issue, but sources say that the police is working on a couple of theories. One of them is that such extortion threats could be the handiwork of local criminals who are pretending to be Dawood's men.

The `victims', perturbed over such developments, have sought the tapping of incoming phone calls by the telecom department.