4 held for demanding extortion of ₹164 crore from builder

Four alleged extortionists, including one posing as an Enforcement Directorate official, have been arrested in Mumbai for threatening a developer with an ED case unless he paid them ₹164 crore ($22 million). The suspects are all involved in the real estate business. Two additional suspects have been identified and are being sought by police. The arrests were made after the accused were caught on CCTV footage threatening the victim in a coffee shop.

Mumbai: The Mumbai Crime Branch (CB) has arrested four alleged extortionists, one of them posed as an Enforcement Directorate (ED) official, after they threatened a prominent Mumbai developer that they would implicate him in an ED case if he did not cough up ₹164 crore to them.

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The arrested accused are Rajendra Shirsath, 59, Rakesh Anand Kumar Kediya, 56, Kalpesh Bhosle, 50, Avrish Shivkant Dubaye, 46, all four are into real estate business.

A senior CB officer confirmed that a First Information Report (FIR) has been registered against seven persons at the Bandra police station. The fifth suspect, Sandeep Tadgek, is in the share market business. Police said two more suspects have been identified and police are searching for them, added the officer.

The accused were intercepted based on the CCTV footage gathered by the crime branch in which they were found with the victim in a coffee shop in Bandra, where they threatened him, added the officer.

The complainant and one of the wanted suspects, who is in his seventies, knew each other, and as per the preliminary investigation, they have some monetary dispute ongoing.

The accused, along with other suspects, planned to allegedly extort money from the complainant by threatening him that ED officers are planning to register an ECIR (Enforcement Case Information Report). So, if he wants himself away from legal remedy, he must pay him ₹164 crore to them, added the officer.

One of the accused called the complainant on January 6, and after a brief discussion, the accused said they could discuss face-to-face, and a meeting was scheduled for January 10 in Bandra. During the meeting, one of the accused claimed himself to be an ED official and threatened him, added the officer. The complainant did not want to pay the money, so he approached a senior official in the state home department and a senior IPS official. The complainant was directed to visit the Bandra police station, and a case of extortion and other relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code was registered. The case was then transferred to the crime branch unit 9 to conduct further investigation, said a senior official on condition of anonymity.