23-year-old man arrested for extorting money from doctors

A 23-year-old man was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly extorting money from a doctor in Mumbai. The Bandra police who took his custody from the Pune police where he was arrested last week for trying to extort money from another doctor, Dr Rahul Damle.

A 23-year-old man was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly extorting money from a doctor in Mumbai. The Bandra police who took his custody from the Pune police where he was arrested last week for trying to extort money from another doctor, Dr Rahul Damle.

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The accused, Samir Ganesh Kulkarni alias Samir Shaikh is a resident of Ahmednagar. A commerce graduate, Kulkarni was produced in the court on Tuesday and released on bail, the police said.

Kulkarni was arrested for allegedly trying to extort money from a Mumbai-based skin specialist Dr. Khalil Mukadam who reported the matter to the police on November 18. The victim received around nine messages and numerous calls on his mobile phone from November 9-11 threatening to kill Mukadam if he did not cough up Rs 50,000.

The police said Kulkarni is suffering from a mental disorder and is undergoing treatment for the same. Explaining his modus operandi, police inspector DS Patil of Bandra police station said, “He randomly chose his target using the phone directory. He would then call them up and demand a small sum thinking it could be easily payable. He has only targeted doctors so far, probably because being a patient he though they were peaceful people who did not want to invite any trouble, but his judgment went wrong.”