The accused has been identified as Charkop resident Anil Kishorkumar Ojha. His family resides in Uttar Pradesh. He had come to Mumbai to pursue higher studies.
A 26-year-old MBA student has been arrested on Thursday by the Kandivli police for allegedly extorting money from an area manager of Pizza Hut. The accused had alleged that he being a vegetarian was served a non-vegetarian pizza. He demanded Rs1 crore to not defame the company on social media. The manager approached the police after which accused was nabbed.
The accused has been identified as Charkop resident Anil Kishorkumar Ojha. His family resides in Uttar Pradesh. He had come to Mumbai to pursue higher studies.
According to the police, On April 4 Ojha visited a Pizza Hut outlet in Mahavir Nagar, Kandivli (W) and had ordered two veg and two non-veg pizza's. "As per the protocol, veg and non-veg pizza's have to be differentiated by putting up labels. However, the order did not differentiated the veg and non-veg pizzas. Considering the pizza to be vegetarian, he ate the non-veg pizza thereby hurt his religious sentiments," said an officer.
Next day, he registered an online complaint against Pizza Hut. The company appointed area manager Prashant Tambe to look after the matter. "Ojha told Tambe that he was purposely served wrong pizza and as a compensation demanded Rs1 crore and if not paid, he threatened to defame company on social media," said the officer.
"After negotiations, the amount was settled for Rs10 lakh. Tambe on Thursday registered a complaint against Ojha stating that the latter has been demanding extortion. Accordingly, a trap was laid and he was nabbed accepting the first installment of Rs25,000. He has been booked on charges of extortion. He was remanded to judicial custody by Borivli Court," said Mukund Pawar, senior inspector.
A Pizza Hut spokesperson said, "We maintain strict quality control at various levels and are very stringent about compliance's and standard protocols. We are aware of the entire situation and this seems to be a groundless case where the ultimate motive of the customer was to extort money. This incident happened at one of our franchisee owned stores. Police is investigating the matter and Pizza Hut is providing necessary assistance."
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