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Ex-Mumbai police chief Param Bir Singh, Sachin Vaze booked in extortion case
Agarwal alleged that Singh, Vaze and civilians Sumit Singh alias Chintu, Vinay Singh alias Bablu and Riyaz Bhati had threatened him and extorted (hafta) monthly payments since January 2020 till March 2021.
Mumbai Police on Friday registered another case of extortion against former city police commissioner Param Bir Singh, dismissed Mumbai police officer Sachin Vaze and three others on the basis of a complaint by a city hotelier and civic contractor Bilal Agarwal. This is the fifth criminal case filed against Singh following one in Marine Drive and four at a Thane police station.
Agarwal has accused Sachin Vaze, arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in connection with the Antilia explosives scare case and the subsequent murder of Thane resident Mansukh Hiren, of extorting money from various establishments on behalf of Param Bir Singh, police said.
According to the police, 47-year old Agarwal alleged that Singh, Vaze and civilians Sumit Singh alias Chintu, Vinay Singh alias Bablu and Riyaz Bhati had threatened him and extorted (hafta) monthly payments since January 2020 till March 2021 for “letting him run his hotels in Goregaon and Andheri without any police hassles.”
Agarwal claimed that he had paid ₹9 lakh in cash and given two Samsung Fold-2 mobile phones worth ₹212,000 to meet their extortion demands.
Agarwal further claimed that he had learnt that the accused had also extorted money from other hotel owners and even bookies, in return for letting them run their betting business in Mumbai without any police intervention.
The Goregaon police said they have registered a case under Section 384 (extortion), 385 (extortion and threat of physical harm) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and are conducting a full-term investigation to verify Agarwal’s claim.
