Chhota Shakeel makes extortion calls under the fake name Haji, say Mumbai crime branch officers

The police said four accused in a Rs5-crore extortion case told them that Shakeel had made the extortion call by the name of Haji

The Mumbai crime branch believes that underworld gangster Chhota Shakeel is operating his own gang and making extortion calls to Mumbai builders under a fake name of Haji.

Chhota Shakeel (HT FILE)

The Anti-Extortion Cell (AEC) of the Mumbai crime branch has arrested four people, who are believed to be his henchmen, for trying to extort Rs5 crore from a Dadar builder. Confirming the arrests, Sanjay Saxena, joint commissioner of police (crime), said the four accused and Shakeel have been charged under MCOCA as they have links with the underworld and they have revealed to the police that Shakeel had made the extortion call by the name of Haji.

The police have sent the phone voice sample of the extortion call for forensic analysis to verify whether it matches with Shakeel’s earlier samples.

The Shivaji Park police, with whom an FIR was first registered, said that on December 29 last year, the builder’s wife picked up a call on their residence’s landline. The caller demanded Rs5 crore from the builder, who soon approached the police and later the case was transferred to the Anti-Extortion Cell of the Mumbai crime branch.

According to crime branch officers, Ubed Shaikh alias Aadil, 29, was arrested on December 30, and he was remanded to police custody till January 8. During his interrogation names of Chand Badshah Shaikh, 31, Nurulhudda Khan alias Nasim Khan, 31, and Bilal Shamsi, 51, had cropped up. The three were then arrested in the first week of January. The police have now charged the four under sections of the stringent MCOCA including Chhota Shakeel as there are past cases and chargesheets filed against him.