Owner of Mumbai’s popular restaurant chain receives ₹2 crore extortion call

Mumbai: Restaurant chain Persian Darbar has filed a police complaint after an unknown caller demanded ₹2 crore from them and threatened to trouble them, if the demand was not met

Mumbai: Restaurant chain Persian Darbar has filed a police complaint after an unknown caller demanded ₹2 crore from them and threatened to trouble them, if the demand was not met. Bandra police is probing the case, while the city crime branch is also conducting a parallel probe.

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The restaurant- Persian Darbar, started in 1978, has four restaurants in the city -- at Bandra, Andheri, Byculla and Kurla. On March 15, the cashier of the Bandra restaurant, Syed Safir, 59 received a phone call through the restaurant’s interactive voice response system, which diverts calls to the respective restaurant branches, as selected by the customers.

The caller introduced himself as one Rauf Sheth and abused Syed Safir and his colleague at the restaurant over 2-3 phone calls the same day, the police said.

“The caller checked with the cashier, if the owner of the restaurant chain was a Shia or a Sunni Muslim. He told the cashier to convey a message to his employer that, if he wished to continue doing business in Mumbai, then he will have to pay ₹2 crore hafta to him. He threatened that his (the employer’s) wife and children would be kidnapped, if he failed to meet the demand,” said a police officer requesting anonymity.

The caller also threatened that the restaurant owner would be sent to Saudi or Dubai, if he failed to pay him. The caller also threatened to force the restaurant owner to embrace Hinduism, the officer added. The cashier informed his employer Talah Upletwala, managing director of the Persian Darbar group, which eventually reported the incident to police. Bandra police have registered an FIR under sections 385 (extortion) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code on the basis of their complaint. The entire conversation between the caller and the restaurant staff has been recorded and we are trying to trace the accused by tracking the phone number used in making the threat calls, another officer said.

When contacted the Bandra branch of the restaurant seeking comment from managing director Talah Upletwala, he through a staff conveyed that the restaurant management doesn’t want to comment on the matter as the police investigation is underway. When asked Zonal DCP Manjunath Singe about the status of the case, he said, “We are working on it.”