Malad bizman accuses ‘friend of police’ of extortion

Vikas Ganeriwal, a Malad businessman, has approached the Bombay High Court alleging that Sudhir Jhunjhunwala, who calls himself a “friend of police and an undercover agent” has been harassing him and trying to extort money by flashing an ‘official’ identity card issued by the Sakinaka police.

Vikas Ganeriwal, a Malad businessman, has approached the Bombay High Court alleging that Sudhir Jhunjhunwala, who calls himself a “friend of police and an undercover agent” has been harassing him and trying to extort money by flashing an ‘official’ identity card issued by the Sakinaka police.

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A division bench of Justice J.N. Patel and Justice Amjad Sayed has asked the commissioner of police to file a personal affidavit explaining the job description of the post.

Ashok Saraogi, advocate for Ganeriwal, argued that Jhunjhunwala had threatened his client using the identity card issued by the police, claiming he was now “equivalent to a policeman”.

Earlier this year, Jhunjhunwala got an FIR lodged, after which Ganeriwal was arrested and kept in a police lockup.

“In the lockup, Jhunjhunwala assaulted and interrogated him,” the petition alleges.

To check if the police had in fact issued the identity card, Ganeriwal filed an application under the Right to Information Act (RTI.)

On November 20, 2008, he got a reply from Kaisar Ahmed, assistant commissioner of police (control room, East region), saying: “No police station has issued such an official identity card. However, Assistant Police Inspector Majardekar of the Sakinaka police station had issued such an identity card as Jhunjhunwala was known to him.” Aabad Ponda, advocate for Jhunjhunwala, told the court that his client and Ganeriwal had known each other and were involved in a commercial transaction.

“As he had defaulted, Jhunjhunwala asked for his money back,” said Ponda.

Jhunjhunwala, a Santacruz resident, runs a business under the name “Jhunjhunwala Distributors Private Limited” and has offices in Santacruz and Jaipur.