Man held for extorting money from doctor in Mumbai

The anti-extortion cell (AEC) of the crime branch on Sunday arrested a 28-year-old man from Wardha district for allegedly demanding an extortion amount from a Mumbai-based doctor. He was remanded to police custody till September 27.

The accused, Raju Shyamraoji Masaram, sent the doctor an SMS with the bank account number in which the money was to be deposited. This, in turn, helped the police, trace the accused.

According to the police, the victim is a well-known doctor. On September 8, he was at a private hospital in south Mumbai when he received an SMS from an unknown mobile number (09175662879).

The SMS, which was sent in Hindi using English letters, said, “You and every member of your family were on the hit-list of Ravi Pujari. If you want to see yourself and your family members alive, you will have to cough up Rs25 lakh. Keep the money ready on September 10 and follow the instructions given in the messages sent from this number. You have two days left with you; think about it.”

A crime branch official added that the victim received three more threatening messages on his phone in the following days. One of them contained the account number of a government bank in which the victim was asked to deposit the extortion money.

“The victim was scared and deposited Rs20,000 in the said account,” the official said. “However, he kept receiving such messages. Harassed, he registered a complaint with the Azad Maidan police station. During the inquiry, it was learnt that the said account was of a branch in the Ram Nagar area of Wardha district.”

The AEC, which was conducting parallel inquiries in the case, contacted the Wardha police station and informed them about the extortion threats. “We told the Wardha police that someone from their area had made an extortion demand. They asked the concerned bank officials to keep a watch on the person who came to withdraw money from the said account. As soon as Masaram came to withdraw Rs10,000, he was caught by police officials, disguised as customers, present in the bank.”

“We are investigating whether Masaram indeed had any links with the Pujari gang and how he managed to get the number of the victim,” he said.