Two ‘activists’ booked for trying to extort ₹2 crore from real estate company

MUMBAI: The Anti-Extortion Cell (AEC) of the city crime branch has booked a ‘social activist’ and his accomplice for allegedly threatening and trying to extort around ₹2 crore from a real estate company redeveloping Rational House, the prominent commercial building at Prabhadevi that houses a multinational bank and financial services firms Goldman Sach’s registered office

MUMBAI: The Anti-Extortion Cell (AEC) of the city crime branch has booked a ‘social activist’ and his accomplice for allegedly threatening and trying to extort around ₹2 crore from a real estate company redeveloping Rational House, the prominent commercial building at Prabhadevi that houses a multinational bank and financial services firms Goldman Sach’s registered office.

“We have booked Raghavendra Kolgi and Santosh Gupta, based on a complaint lodged by Tijarat Khan, who works in Rational Arts of Press Pvt Ltd, a subsidiary of the Fazlani Group of Companies,” said a police officer. “Rational Arts of Press is into buying, selling and leasing properties and the construction business as well.”

According to the complaint, in January 2006, the real estate company purchased Rational House, and applied for permission to the BMC to demolish and redevelop the building. On March 9, 2026, the BMC sent a letter, saying it had received a complaint from one Raghvendra Kolgi, a resident of Kalbadevi, regarding the redevelopment. The complainant had alleged that the plot fell under the industrial zone but commercial permissions were requested, and that certain documents submitted for change of zone were irrelevant.

The firm replied to this, but the redevelopment work was temporarily halted and a hearing was set up under the additional commissioner of F Ward, Parel. “It was then that a person approached the site and told the company representative to ask his bosses to contact him on his mobile number if they wanted to restart the work,” said a police officer.

After contacting Arif Fazlani, the director of the company, the complainant got in touch with the person who had visited the site and found out that the mobile number given belonged to Raghvendra Kolgi. “After that, they met Kolgi, who told the complainant that he wanted to contest elections as an independent candidate and required funds. He demanded ₹2 crore to withdraw the complaint,” said the police officer, adding that Kolgi also assured the complainant that he would not lodge any more complaints about the project.

When the complainant told Kolgi that all their documents were valid and they would not pay him any money, he said he had connections in the BMC and would keep blocking their redevelopment work. He even allegedly threatened to kill the complainant and send local goons to damage the site. When the complainant told him that another person, Santosh Gupta, had also sent a complaint with identical text to the BMC, Kolgi acknowledged that he knew Gupta.

“Kolgi gave the complainant time till August 3 to pay a negotiated amount of ₹1 crore. Gupta too negotiated and brought down his demand to ₹30 lakh for withdrawing his complaint,” said the police officer. The complainant and his firm learnt that Kolgi’s modus operandi was to obtain information about under-construction projects, check their permission files and then file complaints to extort money.

“We have registered a case against the two at Dadar police station under Sections 308 (extortion) and 351 (criminal intimidation) of the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023,” said the police officer. The case is being investigated by the Anti-Extortion Cell of the crime branch.