PUNE: The city police crime branch on Thursday arrested six persons on the charge of attempting to extort Rs20 lakh from a realtor.
The suspects were caught red-handed when they had come to the realtor’s office to collect the first instalment of Rs2 lakh. One of the arrested suspects had threatened the realtor by misusing deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar’s cellphone number.
“One of the suspects Kiran Kakade had downloaded a fake call app on his smartphone. By using it, he used to contact the complainant by posing as Ajit Pawar’s secretary. The complainant used to answer the calls, as the deputy chief minister’s cellphone number would get displayed on his smartphone screen,” said senior inspector Shailesh Sankhe of the crime branch. He added, “In August 2021, the Pimpri Chinchwad police had arrested Kiran Kakade for imitating NCP chief Sharad Pawar’s voice, contacting a senior Mantralaya officer and then recommending transfer of an official.”
Besides Kakade (26), Navnath Choramale (26) of Vade Bolhai, Saurabh Kakade (20) of Hadapsar, Sunil Waghmare (28) of Theur, Chaitanya Waghmare (19) of Phursungi and Akash Nikalaje (24) of Vade Bolhai were arrested under sections 384 (extortion), 386 (extortion by putting a person in fear of death or grievous hurt) of the Indian Penal Code and relevant sections of the Information and Technology Act.
The suspects were produced before the court on Friday and remanded in police custody till January 17.
Sankhe said the realtor had purchased six hectares of land for development in 1997 from Choramale’s grandfather and nine others. “The matter is currently in the civil court. Choramale hatched the plot to extort the money from the realtor,” he said.
Sankhe said Choramale took help of Kiran, who had used the fake call app and contacted the realtor by misusing Pawar’s cellphone number.
He posed as Pawar’s secretary and told the complainant to solve the land dispute in Vade Bolhai. “The ‘secretary’ also threatened the complainant that he would not allow the complainant to start any of his projects and would not allow him to enter the village,” Sankhe said. He said the “secretary” also demanded Rs20 lakh from the realtor.
