Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) leader Vasant More’s son has received death threats and demands for ₹30 lakh in ransom over an alleged marriage certificate, the Bharati Vidyapeeth police said on Tuesday.
According to the police, Vasant More’s son, Rupesh More, last month received a message from an unknown number on a messaging application saying that they have a certificate of his marriage with one Alifiya Sheikh and that they will make the marriage certificate viral on social media. Initially, the More family ignored the threats but the suspect kept on messaging and even called Rupesh More, demanding ₹20 lakh to close the matter.
At that point, the family approached the Bharati Vidyapeeth police following which the accused stopped calling. However, from February 27, the accused resumed calling and messaging Rupesh More, demanding a ransom of ₹30 lakh this time and even threatening to kill him. The unknown accused asked Rupesh More to keep ₹30 lakhs in an Innova car parked next to the Kharadi Yuvan IT Park failing which a rape case would be filed against him by Alifiya.
Vasant More said, “Initially, we ignored the messages. But when the accused started messaging again from February 27, we approached the police station and lodged a police complaint.”
{{/usCountry}}Vasant More said, “Initially, we ignored the messages. But when the accused started messaging again from February 27, we approached the police station and lodged a police complaint.”
{{/usCountry}}According to Rupesh More, he received threats on WhatsApp on March 5 saying that if he did not cough up the said amount, he would be killed. The message further stated that the accused would shoot him and inform his father about the same.
Vasant More said that the marriage certificate is fake and that the date of the supposed marriage mentioned on the certificate is also fake as his son would have been only 20 years’ old at that time. “This is nothing but trying to disturb my family ahead of the civic elections. We are confident though that the police will take action against those involved,” the MNS leader said.
Vijay Puranik, police inspector (crime), said, “As per the complaint filed by the More family, we have registered a case against an unknown person. A technical analysis of the calls and messages is being carried out and we are confident that we will soon be able to nab the suspect.”
A case has been registered at the Bharati Vidyapeeth police station under section 387 (putting person in fear of death or of grievous hurt in order to commit extortion) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and section 66 (c) of the Information Technology Act and further investigation is underway. Vasant More has been a corporator from the Katraj area of Pune and has been associated with the MNS for the past many years.