E-Paper
Irani national arrested for extortion attempt
An Irani national has been arrested by unit 2 of the crime branch of Pune city police for attempting to extort Rs40 lakh from a businesswoman to withdraw a case filed against her son by an Irani girl
An Irani national has been arrested by unit 2 of the crime branch of Pune city police for attempting to extort Rs40 lakh from a businesswoman to withdraw a case filed against her son by an Irani girl.
The accused, identified as Farzad Mohamad Riza Fakhabadi, 31, a resident of Kondhwa, is a member of the Irani group and is here on business visa. According to the police, Fakhabadi is the leader of the Irani group in Pune, and works for the Irani community. As per the complaint filed by the businesswoman, Sapana Morarjee, Fakhabadi demanded Rs40 lakh to withdraw a case filed against her son, Dhanraj Morarjee, for allegedly threatening an Irani girl.
The police said that in 2018, an Irani girl had filed a complaint against Dhanraj for allegedly threatening her and illegally detaining her. Whereas Fakhabadi said that he knows the Irani girl and that she will withdraw her police complaint against Dhanraj upon his intervention. Fakhabadi approached Sapana regarding the same and told her that he is a member of the Irani group and will facilitate the withdrawal of the case against her son, Dhanraj. On October 6, three unknown motorcyclists approached the complainant and demanded Rs40 lakh from her, threatening her with dire consequences if she failed to cough up the money. Immediately after this incident, Sapana lodged the police complaint.
Krantikumar Patil, senior police inspector, said, “According to the complaint filed by Sapana, we laid a trap and arrested the accused under charges of extortion by threatening a person with death or grievous hurt.” Taking cognisance of the complaint, Patil formed two teams and nabbed Fakhabadi.
During interrogation, Fakhabadi confessed to having demanded the extortion money of Rs40 lakh. A case has been registered at Koregaon park police station under sections 384 (extortion by putting a person in fear of death or grievous hurt), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace), and 507 (criminal intimidation by an anonymous communication) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), and further investigation is underway.
