Pune cops arrest 3 extortionists armed with fake pistols bought on Flipkart

Besides the duplicate pistols, the police also recovered four mobile phones from the arrested. One of the four mobile phones had the sim card which was used to make the last extortion call to a doctor.

On Monday, city police arrested three men who were trying to extort money from a city-based doctor since December, 2017. The three were found in possession of two duplicate pistols purchased from Flipkart, said Pravin Mundhe, deputy commissioner of police, Zone-1.

The last call was made on Saturday and the three had asked the doctor to come to a location in Uruli Kanchan with the money on Monday. The police set a trap and arrested the three from Uruli Kanchan. (HT REPRESENTATIVE IMAGE)

They were identified as Akash Santosh Pawar, 24, Shakeel Kallukhan Pathan, 29, and Akshay shivajirao Ravade, 24, according to the police. While Pawar drives a tanker, Pathan is a scrap dealer, and Ravade works in a garage.

Besides the duplicate pistols, the police also recovered four mobile phones from the arrested. One of the four mobile phones had the sim card which was used to make the last extortion call to the doctor. The last call was made on Saturday and the three had asked the doctor to come to a location in Uruli Kanchan with the money on Monday. The police set a trap and arrested the three from Uruli Kanchan.

"They had snatched a sim card from a roadside kulfi (ice-cream) vendor and made the call. They were evading arrest all this while by changing sim cards," said DCP Mundhe.

The three told the police that a one of Ravade’s female friends was also friends with the nephew of the doctor. Whether Ravde's friend was involved in the case or not is a part of ongoing investigation, added DCP Mundhe.