Is the underworld turning its tentacles towards Bollywood again? Barely a few months after a plot to kill film-maker Mahesh Bhatt was thwarted, the employee of a female movie producer was arrested for giving her contact details to a gangster, who made an extortion threat to her. This time, Ejaz Lakdawala was the underworld don in question. The phone call demanding Rs3 crore took place last year, police said.
Is the underworld turning its tentacles towards Bollywood again? Barely a few months after a plot to kill film-maker Mahesh Bhatt was thwarted, the employee of a female movie producer was arrested for giving her contact details to a gangster, who made an extortion threat to her. This time, Ejaz Lakdawala was the underworld don in question. The phone call demanding Rs3 crore took place last year, police said.
The Anti-Extortion Cell (AEC) of city police on Wednesday arrested the employee known as Parvez Qureshi, 45, a resident of Saki Naka.
The officer said that after the extortion call was made last year, Qureshi had fled Mumbai, gone to his native place in Pune, and had later gone underground.
Qureshi was caught on Wednesday on the basis of a tip-off that he would be arriving at his Saki Naka residence. “Qureshi is associated with organised crime and has a criminal background. Cases of murder, attempt to commit murder and issuing extortion threats have registered in various police stations in Mumbai against Qureshi,” the officer claimed. He added, “We are yet to seize the phone and SIM used by Qureshi to communicate with Lakdawala.”
He also said that Qureshi was previously associated with gangster Chhota Rajan. Police are probing if someone aided him in providing information about the complainant to Lakdawala. “We are also probing if Qureshi had provided information about other businessmen to gangsters,” the officer said.
According to the police, the complainant (name withheld) released a movie last month. The complainant has set up a production house with her husband.
“The complainant told us that a year before the release of her film (March 27), she got a Rs3 crore extortion demand from gangster Lakdawala who is currently operating from abroad. A couple of days later, the complainant met senior crime branch officers who then asked AEC to look into the matter,” said a crime branch officer, requesting anonymity.
The complainant's husband is a Baroda resident and has a construction business based in Mumbai and Baroda. “When we made inquiries with the complainant's husband, he said suspected his employee Qureshi was behind the extortion threat and had provided the contact details of his employers to Lakdawala,” the officer said.
An ex-student of Bandra's St Stanislaus school, Ejaz Lakdawala started out as an employee in his uncle's transport company. In 1993, he killed one Haren Mehta after an altercation at a cricket match. He was arrested, imprisoned and acquitted in 1995. In prison, he met one Sunil Madgaonkar alias Matya who gave Lakdawala the contract (supari) to kill alleged Chhota Shakeel aide Farid Rajji. Rajji survived the attempt on his life in 1996 and Lakdawala was arrested and sent to Nashik jail. He escaped from the jail in 1998 and fled to Malaysia. There he joined Chhota Rajan and later formed his own gang.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}