5 booked for extorting Rs 14.5L from SRA project builder

As per the police complaint filed by the builder, the five accused have been demanding extortion money from the developer company since 2013 by threatening to stop construction work at the site.

The company gave a total of Rs 14.60 lakh to the accused Govind Pawar through cheques on different occasions between May 2013 and December 2019 so that construction work could continue smoothly.

Pawar had further distributed this money with four other accused persons, the company’s lawyer alleged in the FIR.
When the construction work of the SRA component in the project was about to be completed in March 2024, Dinesh Bansal, the company’s chairman, visited the site.

The accused persons too visited the site around this time and demanded and extorted money of Rs 50 lakh from Bansal and threatened him saying they would not allow the work to continue at the site if they were not paid, the lawyer alleged in his statement.

But as the complainant company gave only Rs 8 lakh in April this year, the accused person created a scene at the construction site and abused workers, the lawyer further alleged.

During the 2024 Lok Sabha election, the accused persons erected defamatory banners about company chairman Dinesh Bansal and tried to create tension in the area by instigating the slum residents, the police said.
After waiting for some months, the complainant company eventually approached the police and filed a complaint against the five.

The police have booked the five accused under relevant sections of extortion, cheating, defamation, abuse, and criminal breach of trust of the Indian Penal Code.

“After finding cognisable material in the builder’s complaint against the five accused, we have registered an FIR against them and would soon send them notices,” said an officer from Samta Nagar police station.