What began as a salary dispute soured into a Rs 1-crore extortion attempt by a sacked driver, who was aided by two serving officials of the Income Tax Department and seven others, in Mumbai. But it did not quite work out as the businessman being targeted called the cops, who tracked the gang down using technical surveillance and trails, police said on Thursday.
Police said the businessperson's former driver, Santosh Uday Khopatkar, 37, who had been dismissed without six months' salary, set the plot in motion. It was not mentioned how much money he was owed by the businessman, Rajkumar Kandasami, 49.But Khopatkar then tried a Rs 1-crore shakedown at once. "Holding a grudge, he used the information he had about the complainant," the police's press note said, adding that he "hatched a criminal conspiracy" with six men and three women he knew before.
In a script that could have been lifted from 'Special 26', the 2013 Akshay Kumar-Anupam Kher Hindi film in which conmen pose as CBI officers to carry out fake raids, the group then allegedly forced its way into Kandasami's office.
Police said the group posed as I-T and Crime Branch officials, showed fake identity cards, and confined Kandasami and his wife in their office. They took the mobile phones of the couple and 10 office employees and stopped all of them from leaving, police said.
They threatened legal action through the Income Tax Department and hurled abuses, the police said. "They also demanded Rs 1 crore in extortion to avoid the action. "It was not clear if the money was paid or promised for the time being, but Kandasami then filed a complaint, and a case was registered under sections related to criminal conspiracy, impersonating a public servant, trespass, kidnapping or wrongful confinement, criminal intimidation and extortion.
Using technical investigation, police arrested the man's ex-driver Khopatkar along with Vinay Ramesh More, 37; Prem Kisan Sabnani, 50; Pragya Harish Main, 27; Reshma Shamrao Warang, 41; and Sabina Hafiz Shaikh, 48.That was not the end of the trail, as questioning the six revealed that two more men who were part of the extortion bid were in the I-T department itself.
On Thursday, Andheri Police traced and arrested income tax inspector Suresh Mahavirprasad Mishra, 57, and tax assistant Sunil Manohar Gore, 59. They also arrested Jitendra Namdev More alias Jitu, 52, and Ashok Vithoba Shinde, 57.(With inputs by Ruttik Ganakwar)