MP, MLA among politicians on target list of extortion callers in Pune

“In the latest revelation, the probe shows that five prominent politicians from Pune were on the list of targets of the suspects. They had plans to make calls to Shiv Sena MP Shrirang Barne, Congress MLA Sangram Thopte, former mayor and BJP leader Murlidhar Mohol and former corporators Shrinath Bhimale and Sainath Babar. We have obtained concrete evidence in this regard in the latest investigation in the case,” said a senior Crime Branch officer.

In September last year, former corporator Deepak Misal, also the brother-in-law of BJP MLA Madhuri Misal, had received multiple extortion calls from various WhatsApp numbers. The callers had issued death threats and demanded online transfers of money. The police had arrested one Imran Sameer Shaikh, 37, in October last year in connection with the case.

In March this year, Rupesh More, the son of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena leader Vasant More, had received an extortion call demanding a ransom of Rs 30 lakh. Around the same time, a prominent builder had received an extortion demand for Rs 30 lakh and callers threatened to kidnap and kill his son otherwise.

Earlier this month, former corporator Avinash Bagwe, the son of senior Congress leader Ramesh Bagwe received a death threat and extortion call demanding Rs 25 lakh. BJP MLA Mahesh Landge also received an extortion call around the same time.

Officials said in all these cases complainants had immediately contacted the police and in none of the cases, money was paid.

While probing the initial set of calls, the Pune police in March arrested Imran Sameer Shaikh, who was first arrested in October last year following a death threat to Misal and was later released on bail.

However, as the extortion calls on a similar modus operandi persisted in April, the police continued the coordinated probe into the case. On April 4, the police arrested Shaikh’s accomplice Shahnawaz Gaziykhan, 31, who had been making these calls.

The probe by the Crime Branch has now revealed Shaikh and Gaziykhan ran an online marriage bureau in the past and had formed a number of social media groups of prospective brides and grooms and their family members. In March last year, after Gaziykhan was rejected by one of the prospective brides in the group, the two had started harassing her and her family. They even made a forged marriage certificate and circulated it on social media groups saying she was a divorcee.

Then, the suspects started making extortion calls in the name of the woman’s family and also started giving out her family car details for keeping extortion money to those they used to make calls to. The police probe also shows the two hacked into the WhatsApp accounts of many people by manipulating them into giving one-time passwords and then using these accounts to make extortion and threat calls.

Over the course of their investigation, the police recovered several SIM cards, cell phones, details of WhatsApp calls made from these phones, contact details of those who got the extortion calls, and those who were on their list along with information about all these people. The probe has also revealed that the two had continued to be part of the marriage bureau groups till the time of their arrests.

They are currently in police custody.