Criminal held for threatening BJP Haveli unit chief

The Dattawadi police have arrested a history sheeter for allegedly threatening and demanding Rs2 lakh as extortion money from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Haveli taluka unit chief Sandeep Subhash Pokale.

The suspect was identified as Rajendra Sharad Kolekar (23) of Dhayari village. He was first arrested in a murder case, but was released on bail six months ago.

According to the police, Kolekar was collecting ‘hafta’ as protection money from businessmen, vegetable vendors and shopkeepers in Dattawadi and Dhayari for the last couple of months.

However, nobody came forward to register a complaint against him.

Assistant police inspector SN Pawar of Dattawadi police station told dna, “Kolekar is a criminal and has collected money from local businessmen and vendors. He used to collect details of the persons and later demanded money from them. A few weeks ago, Kolekar collected details of Pokale and his constructions sites that are going on in different parts of the city.”

“Kolekar called up on Pokale’s mobile phone on September 8 and issued a warning of dire consequences and demanded Rs2 lakh from him. The scared Pokale assured Kolekar that he would discuss this matter once he returned from Latur, but Kolekar did not agree.

“Kolekar called up Pokale four times. He threatened to go to his house and harm his family members. Finally, Pokale approached us and lodged a complaint against him,” Pawar added.
A team from Dattawadi police station arrested Kolekar from his house at Dhayari village on Friday night.

Pawar added, “We arrested Kolekar and produced him before the court. We have obtained an order for his police custody till Monday. We suspect that Kolekar has a weapon, which we need to recover. Besides, we will track down his gang members.”