Ex-Hiranandani employee arrested for extortion bid

Mumbai: The Powai police has arrested a former employee of a private firm, Hiranandani Garden Community Pvt. Ltd., for allegedly accepting Rs 1 crore as part-payment of his extortion demand of Rs 20 crore in lieu of withdrawing complaints related to a few projects. A trap was laid at a Thane hotel to arrest the accused while accepting the Rs 1 crore installment.

According to police sources, the arrested accused, a former employee of Hiranandani Garden Community Pvt. Ltd. whose name has been kept under wraps, quit the company in November 2016 and moved away from the city to Junnar. Following the resignation, the accused joined a local political party, and since he knew about the company’s operations, started lodging complaints at the civic office against Hiranandani. When the company came to know about it, they questioned the accused who said he was willing to withdraw the complaints for a price of Rs 20 crore.

The source added that the complainant, Arjun Dhaytakde, an employee of the Hiranandani company, agreed to comply with the accused’s demands and paid an installment of Rs 10 lakh. While the correspondence for this transaction was made, Mr Dhaytakde recorded all the calls and approached the police with all the evidence. As the next installment, the complainant was asked to pay Rs 1 crore and before the complainant could meet the accused, the police laid a trap and the accused walked right into it. The police arrested the accused and his accomplice in the act of extortion.

Anil Pophale, senior police inspector of Powai police station, said, “The accused has been arrested under section 384 of the Indian Penal Code that pertains to extortion.”