Extortion or land dispute?

MUMBAI, April 14: Mumbai police today said there could be two motives behind the attempt on the life of Uday Acharya, editor-publisher-proprietor of the Veto Power group of publications: extortion and property dispute. Joint Commissioner of Police (crime) Ranjit Singh Sharma said Acharya had recently acquired two hotels, Jal International and Damji’s, and the attack may have been the fallout of a dispute in these two deals.

Police are also trying to ascertain if Chhota Rajan’s key associate Rohit Verma had demanded Rs 50 lakh as protection money from Acharya. “Apparently the gangsters wanted to abduct Acharya. One of the assailants involved in yesterday’s attack has been identified,” Sharma said.

According to sources, Acharya incurred the wrath of the Rajan gang after he carried some `pro-encounter’ stories in his publications. ]Some reports, they said, showed Rajan in a poor light. Initially, Rajan’s men demanded that Acharya either pay Rs 10 crore or shut down his newspaper Dainik Sandhya. The demandwas later reduced to Rs 5 crore, and finally to Rs 50 lakh. An attempt was made on Acharya’s life when he refused to pay.

According to another version, Acharya started receiving threats from the underworld after he disclosed property estimated at around Rs 66 crore under the Voluntary Disclosure scheme.