Mumbai sees 10 per cent fall in extortion cases compared to 2015

Mumbai: Extortion cases registered by the Mumbai police came down by around 10 per cent in 2016 in comparison to the number of cases lodged by them in 2015, which was 253. The police detected over 80 per cent of the cases recorded in 2016 as well as 2015, according to Mumbai police figures.

Extortion cases are considered to be an indicator of organised crime activities, said a police officer, who, while interpreting the figures, said the decline in the numbers reflects effective measures against organised crime taken by the department.

According to the source, there was also allegedly a lull in extortion-related activities of two major underworld gangs led by wanted gangster Dawood Ibrahim and incarcerated gangster Chhota Rajan. Rajan was deported to India from Indonesia in November 2015 and was thereafter lodged in judicial custody at Delhi’s high-security Tihar prison, even as he faces probes in 70-odd cases handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation by the Maharashtra police.

The police had recorded 238 extortion cases in 2014 and 233 in 2013. The number of extortion cases registered by the police was, on the other hand, much higher in the nineties, when it allegedly rose to 700 in 1998, at a time there was a realty boom, according to another police source.  The source said, “There are not many extortion-related complaints coming to the Mumbai police against the Dawood gang. It could be that the gang has moved away to other crimes yielding greater returns, like narcotics for instance is such a sector. It could also be that the gang is getting its protection money without much effort.” The source said, “As for the Chhota Rajan gang, there is a lull in the gang’s activities since his imprisonment after his deportation from Indonesia.”

According to the source, members of the gang led by wanted gangster Ravi Pujari, a former Rajan gang member, are also under the police scanner for their role in extortion-related activities. The source said, “We keep a close watch on especially those who get released from jail and attempt to take to extortion activities on behalf of the gangs they are affiliated to.”

Last year, among the big underworld ‘catch’ of the police was alleged Rajan gang member, Ganesh Soradi alias Danny, who was arrested by the Mumbai crime branch in October 2016 and was named in several serious cases.