Radheshyam Mopalwar extortion case: Accused couple made 25 foreign trips to speak to gangster Ravi Pujari

The cops are also looking into the property the accused own to check if they bought that with the money they had extorted.

The Thane police have found that the main accused in Radheshyam Mopalwar extortion case — Satish Mangale and his wife Shraddha — had gone out of India around 25 times in the past few years to be able to call gangster Ravi Pujari with an international number.

Shraddha Mangale was held for trying to extort Rs7 crore from Radheshyam Mopalwar. (HT FILE)

The cops are also looking into the property the accused own to check if they bought that with the money they had extorted.

Pradeep Sharma, senior police inspector, Thane anti-extortion cell, said, “We have found call data records of a Sri Lankan SIM card Satish owns and he used it to make international calls. We have sent Mangales’ audio recordings we retrieved from the phone to forensic lab.”

The police said the accused had visited Banghok, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Dubai in past few years. “We have their passport, which shows that they have made many foreign trips, especially to Sri Lanka,” added Sharma.

On November 12, Mopalwar received a threat call from Pujari asking him to withdraw the case. “After Mopalwar received that call, we booked the arrested accused under MCOCA and now we have found that the accused were in touch with the gangster. They would go on foreign trips, make calls and chart a plan and then only come back,” said a police source close to the investigation.