Gaikwad, who was shot inside police station, booked for extortion

Former Shiv Sena corporator Mahesh Gaikwad booked for extortion at Ulhasnagar police station, accused of trying to confiscate land and demanding ₹5 crore.

Thane: Former Shiv Sena corporator Mahesh Gaikwad, who was shot at by BJP MLA Ganpat Gaikwad inside the Hill Line police station in Ulhasnagar, has been booked for extortion at the same police station. The complainant Sadrudhin Bashar Khan, 58, a Navi Mumbai builder, alleged that Gaikwad tried to confiscate his land in Ambernath taluka with the help of villagers and demanded ₹5 crore as extortion money.

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This is the second case at the Hill Line police station in the past one month wherein Gaikwad is an accused. His fellow accused in the extortion case are Yashwant Muka Phulore, Rohidas Muka Phulore, Ganesh Yashwant Phulore, and Shewantibai Muka Phulore.

According to the police, Sadrudhin Khan purchased a 27-acre plot in Kushivali village at the foothills of Malang-gad in 2009. He purchased the land in the name of Iqbal Khan, abiding by all procedures of the revenue department and completing the sale registration process. He also got the land measured through the Ambernath land records department in 2019.

But when Khan visited his plot in the village again in November 2023, he saw a board declaring the Phulore family as the owner, said officials. The board also warned of legal action against trespassers.

“We conducted a preliminary probe and found that Mahesh Gaikwad and the Phulore family were trying to take possession of the plot illegally and demanding a ransom of ₹5 crore to waive their claims to the land. Therefore, we registered an extortion case against all of them,” said a police officer.