Man held for extorting ₹1 crore from uncle

Thane Police arrested Mangesh Arun Thorat for attempting to extort ₹1 crore from his uncle. Thorat had failed to repay a personal loan and recover money from a builder.

Thane: The anti-extortion cell of Thane Police arrested Mangesh Arun Thorat, 29, red-handed while attempting to extort ₹1 crore from his uncle. The complaint was filed by Subhash Ramchandra Tupe, a retired chief engineer from MIDC, and his wife, Jayashree Tupe, a former executive engineer at MIDC.

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The complaint highlighted that Jayashree had provided a personal loan of ₹61 lakh to Thorat, which the accused had failed to repay. Additionally, she gave ₹1.25 crore to builder Punit Kumar for business purposes based on a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between them. But when the amount was not returned, Jayashree entrusted Thorat to recover it. She also paid ₹5 lakh to Thorat in advance to recover the money from the builder.

According to the police, Thorat not only failed to recover the money but resorted to threaten his uncle and aunt, stating he would report the transaction to the Anti Corruption Bureau unless they paid him ₹1 crore. Attempts were made to resolve the matter within the family but Thorat continued with his demands and threats.

Sunil Tarmale, investigation officer of the Anti-extortion Cell, Thane Police, said, “Tupe approached us and narrated the entire incident. Thereafter, we laid a trap at Kharghar toll naka in Navi Mumbai on Wednesday and caught him red-handed while accepting an extortion amount of ₹1 crore.”

Thorat faces charges under sections 384, (Extortion), 386 (Extortion by putting a person in fear of death or grievous hurt), 387 (Putting person in fear of death or grievous hurt to commit extortion), 506 (2) (Criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code. He has been remanded into police custody for five days after being produced in court.