According to the police, the businessman received a call from an unknown number (2502338803) on July 27. The caller identified himself as Rajesh and claimed to be Pujari’s right-hand man.
Santosh Raghu Shetty, 34, has been arrested by the anti-extortion cell (AEC) of the Mumbai crime branch for allegedly demanding an extortion amount of Rs50 lakh from an Andheri businessman at the behest of gangster Ravi Pujari. He was produced before a local court and remanded in police custody till October 1.
According to the police, the businessman received a call from an unknown number (2502338803) on July 27. The caller identified himself as Rajesh and claimed to be Pujari’s right-hand man.
“The caller threatened the victim in Hindi, saying he was aware the businessman made huge sums of money from his business,” said a crime branch officer, requesting anonymity. “He added he knew that the victim’s son was completing his studies in London. He demanded Rs50 lakh as extortion money.”
The caller further told the victim that his family members would be killed if he did not cough up the extortion amount. “The caller made threat calls to the victim using different public telephone booths in different parts of the city so it became difficult to track him. “The accused used to call thrice in a day and abuse the victim,” said the officer.
The victim kept receiving threat calls. After a series of conversations, the extortionist agreed to bring down the amount to as low as Rs5 lakh. “On September 18, the victim received another call from the extortionist, who told him to meet at the Hanuman temple at Aaram Nagar in the Seven Bungalows area of Andheri (West) on Tuesday with the extortion money. He also warned that the victim would have to face dire consequences if he approached the police,” the officer said.
However, the victim managed to pluck up courage and approached the police. A police team led by inspector Nitin Alakhnure and Satish Mayekar laid a trap at the said place and arrested Shetty as soon as he arrived there to collect the money.
Another crime branch officer said, "It has been observed that many petty criminals use names of known underworld gangsters to extort money from businessmen. We are verifying whether Shetty was affiliated to the Pujari gang and how he managed to get so many details about the victim and his family members. Someone known to the victim may also have provided the information to Shetty."
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