Stay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram
Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Interrogation of Narahari Satam, nephew of wanted fugitive Guru Satam, has revealed that Narahari started handling the Mumbai end of his uncle’s extortion racket around a year ago, when he needed money for his father’s treatment. Since then, the uncle-nephew duo have extorted at least four others in the past year and these incidents went unnoticed because they were never reported to the police, crime branch officers said.
Narahari alias Pankaj alias Kanya was arrested in a trap laid by the Mumbai police crime branch’s anti extortion cell on December 5 this year while allegedly accepting Rs 10 lakh as extortion money from a Mumbai-based builder. The builder had initially received calls from Guru, after which Narahari took over and demanded Rs 50 lakh, of which the first installment was to be paid on December 5. Narahari himself turned up to accept the money, after which he was arrested.
“Narahari’s interrogation has revealed that he has been handling the Mumbai end of Guru’s extortion racket, who is currently believed to be out of India, for at least the past year.
Guru contacted him around a year ago when his father was in the hospital with health complications due to diabetes. We have verified this independently, and his father is indeed unwell.
Guru told Narahari to handle the work that he was giving him, so that he could get money for his father’s treatment,” said a crime branch officer.
Investigations so far have revealed that the typical modus operandi was that Guru himself would call the targets the first couple of times, after which he would tell Narahari to take it further.
Guru and Narahari have allegedly extorted at least four persons from various fields in the past year alone, but the victims never approached the police, sources said.
“Narahari has confessed to having made extortion calls to four-five people, which includes businessmen, builders and doctors.We will soon start contacting the victims to initiate the process of registering separate FIRs in each of these cases. Narahari has also named two more people who helped him in the racket,” the officer said.
The Crime Branch is now exploring if there are enough grounds to invoke the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).
Stay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram
