Three days after the shocking incident in which senior advocate Dipesh Mehta (in pic) was threatened and Rs2 crore were demanded from him by an unidentified man, the Bandra police are still groping in the dark and have not made any breakthrough in the case.
Even though the unidentified person called Mehta as many as 14 times from within Mumbai after a complaint was lodged with the police, the latter have not even managed to trace the caller or his location.
Speaking to dna on Wednesday, staff members of Mehta’s expressed dissatisfaction over the way the Bandra police were conducting investigations in the sensitive case. Mehta, who was out of the country when the incident happened, is expected to reach Mumbai late on Wednesday night.
The police defended themselves by saying that after Mehta received the threat calls, the location of the caller was traced to Santa Cruz and Juhu area. “Police teams were rushed to there, but could not trace the caller,” said a police officer from Bandra police station. Making matters worse for the police, the caller has reportedly switched off the mobile phone since Tuesday evening.
The police, however, remained confident of nabbing the extortionist. “Based on investigations so far, we feel that the extortionist is a local and could be known to Mehta. He could be a former employee or an acquaintance,” the officer said.
The police on Wednesday also cleared Mehta’s driver Rajesh. “The unidentified caller had asked Mehta to hand over the money to Rajesh. We have thoroughly questioned Rajesh and ruled out his involvement,” the officer added.
On Monday afternoon, while Mehta was out of the country, an unidentified person delivered a bouquet in his office in Bandra.
The bouquet had a letter with it, which was addressed to Mehta, threatening him with dire consequences if he did not pay Rs2 crore. A live bullet was also found inside the envelope.
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