Four arrested in Vakola for extorting money

The Vakola police on Monday arrested four persons who allegedly tried to extort money from a man after one of them met him through an online dating website. The four accused have been identified as Rayees Shaikh, 25, Avduth Hatankar, 27, Sahil alias Salim Shaikh, 21 and Ambadas Budivant alias Wasim, 26. They were arrested when they came to take Rs80,000 from the complainant.

According to the police, the complainant told them that he got acquainted to a man, later identified as Sahil, on a dating website on Friday and invited him to his residence in Santa Cruz (East). They met on Saturday afternoon at the complainant's residence. When Sahil went to the bathroom, his friends started knocking on the front door. When the complainant opened it, three men entered the house. This is when Sahil came out of the bathroom.

One of the three men introduced himself as Sahil's brother and started threatening the complainant. All the three then demanded money from him. They asked him to keep Rs80,000 ready. The accused then took away a laptop and an iPad worth Rs40,000 from the complainant. The complainant later approached the Vakola police filed a complaint.

Senior inspector Vinayak Muley said, "We nabbed the four accused when they came to the complainant's house to take the money. We are trying to find out if they have committed any other offence in the past. They were produced in court and have been remanded in police custody till Wednesday."