Two ‘RTI activists’ demand extortion of ₹30L from BMC officer

Two persons from Andheri have been booked for demanding extortion of ₹30 lakh from a BMC officer after sending him a text with his property details.

MUMBAI: Two persons from Andheri have been booked on Thursday for demanding extortion of ₹30 lakh from an officer working with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). The 54-year-old civic official, who works with Material Testing Laboratory in Worli, received a text message recently containing a link to a PDF file enlisting details about his various properties.

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This was followed by a phone call from two persons, identified as Hemant Kalia, 50, and Santosh Chaudhari, 47, who posed as human rights and RTI activists. They demanded ₹30 lakh to ‘settle the matter’, if not, then threatened to leak the officer’s property details.

“When the complainant opened the message, he was shocked to see the details about his properties. When he enquired about the number of the sender, he found that it was registered in the name of a human rights activist,” said a police officer from Worli police station.

“The two accused even visited the complainant’s office and demanded the money. The BMC officer filed a written complaint with the Worli police about the incident,” said a police officer.

Based on the complaint, the police booked the two Andheri residents. “After preliminary verification, we have registered an offence against the two persons under sections 389 (putting a person in fear of accusation of offence in order to commit extortion) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code,” said a police officer from Worli police station.

“We are yet to make arrests in the case,” said the police officer who added, “We are also verifying how they got the complainant’s details or his property details.”