Man held for demanding Rs 2 crore from doctor

The crime branch of Mumbai police arrested Salauddin Ilyas Khan, 48, on Thursday for allegedly demanding Rs 2 crore from a doctor in south Mumbai. Debasish Panigrahi reports.

The crime branch of Mumbai police arrested Salauddin Ilyas Khan, 48, on Thursday for allegedly demanding Rs 2 crore from a doctor in south Mumbai.

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Originally a Dongri resident, Khan, who has been living in Muscat for close to two decades, also has four other cases registered against him in 2005-06 for making extortion calls to more than 20 doctors.

The doctor approached the police’s Anti-Extortion Cell after he received a call on May 1 from a person who identified himself as “Shetty.” The caller claimed to be a close aide of gangster Dawood Ibrahim and demanded Rs 2 crore, an amount he later brought down to Rs 5.5 lakh.

The AEC cops first laid a trap for Khan’s local contact, Abdul S Merchant, a Dongri resident, and arrested him when he came to collect the amount near Saifee Hospital at Charni Road.

However, Khan continued to call the doctor. He threatened him with dire consequences as he had informed the police and hiked the ransom amount to Rs 12 lakh.

The AEC, tracking his calls, found out that he had been speaking from Muscat. From June 5, however, he started calling from numbers in Mumbai.

When he called from a public telephone booth near a BMC night school in Antop Hill on Thursday, the police asked the doctor to keep talking to him till their team reached the spot. Khan was still talking to the doctor over the phone when the police squad got there.

Following the arrest, the AEC has found out that Khan sells second-hand automobile spare parts in Muscat.

He had obtained the doctor’s telephone number from one of his relatives, who was a patient.

Joint commissioner of police, crime, Himanshu Roy, said that Khan has been remanded in police custody till June 28.