Police inspector, five others arrested for extorting Rs 2 crore from businessman in Navi Mumbai

According to police, the complainant in the case is one Rajesh Katra, 54, who lives in Ghatkopar and manages the operations of a cold storage company. While the company’s owner lives in Nagpur, a unit is based at Turbhe in Navi Mumbai.

Katra told the police that while he was travelling in his Creta car from his Ghatkopar residence to the company’s Turbhe unit, a vehicle suddenly approached him and stopped in front of his car.

“At 2.05 pm, when we were on the service near the Vashi bridge, an Ertiga came and stopped in front of us, while another vehicle halted behind us,” the complaint read.

Suddenly, two people stepped down and approached his vehicle. Identifying themselves as the Mumbai police, they asked, “Why is the driver driving so fast? Where are you going? We are the police, and we want to check your car,” the complainant told the police.

The two further stated that their senior was inside the vehicle behind them. When Katra looked behind, four other people stepped outside their vehicle. “One of them was in a police uniform and had six stars over his shoulder (three stars on each side),” Katra said in his statement to the police.

The six accused then allegedly claimed that they had received numerous complaints against him and that they would have to arrest him. The accused further threatened to implicate him and his family members in a case after which they demanded Rs 15 crore to settle the matter.

Later, the complainant told him that he did not have that much money and could instead hand them Rs 1.4 crore which is with his relative in Vashi. An officer said the six agreed to settle it at 2 crores. The accused then took the businessman to his relative’s house in Vashi, where they took the money and escaped.

“After the incident, I went to my office and my relative’s place in Vashi. I discussed the incident with him and other relatives, and they advised me to lodge a formal complaint,” the complainant’s statement read.

Katra then approached the Vashi police station after which a case was registered under relevant sections of kidnapping, impersonating a public servant, dacoity, wrongful restrain and criminal intimidation of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

“All six accused have been arrested in the case. We will present them before the court soon and try to ascertain more facts about the case,” a police officer said.