PUNE: The Airport police have arrested four men and are searching for their woman accomplice for allegedly trying to extort Rs50 lakh from an ex-serviceman from Chandannagar, who also runs a packaging unit.
This is the second such case to have occurred in the city over the last three days.
The ex-serviceman lodged a complaint accusing the woman and the four men keeping him confined in a room in Narayangaon for four days, from August 12. The suspects asked him to pay them Rs50 lakh or else they would implicate him in a rape case. The victim was let off on August 16 after he gave them bearer cheques worth Rs30 lakh. However, he approached the police before the suspects were able to encash the cheques, police said.
Senior inspector Bharat Jadhav and his team arrested Dattatray Yadav (47), Uttam Tanaji Kurhade (40) of Ale in Junnar taluka, Narayan Jadhav (38) of Junnar town and Anil Walmiki (45) of Katraj, following the complaint. “The four men accepted the bearer cheques from the victim, but did not deposit them in the bank. Instead, they started demanding Rs10 lakh in cash while issuing threats to him on phone,” said deputy commissioner of police (zone IV) Pankaj Deshmukh.
In his statement recorded with the police, the victim said he received a call from the woman asking for a job at his packaging unit about a month back. When he told her that there was no immediate need for employees, the woman kept in touch with him and even started texting messages to him. On August 12, while the victim was on way to a place along the Nashik Road, the woman called and asked him to visit her in Narayangaon. He went there in his car.
“The woman met and took him to a house about 2km from Narayangaon. After they settled down in the house, her four aides, armed with sharp axes, arrived. They issued threats to him and threatened to file a rape complaint against him if he did not pay them Rs50 lakh, the victim said in his complaint.
“Two of the suspects came to Pune city on Tuesday to collect cash and were staying in a hotel when the police nabbed them, leading to the arrest of other two suspects,” Jadhav said, adding that Walmiki is a real estate agent.
