Mumbai: It appears that fugitive gangster Guru Satam — who had been lying low since 2015 — is attempting to fill the vacuum in the city’s underworld by regrouping its operatives to extort property developers, Mumbai crime branch (CB) sources have claimed. Days after the CB’s crackdown on a gang, which led to the arrest of five suspected Satam henchmen, more property developers have approached the police with complaints of extortion demands by the gangster.
Satam’s extortion racket has been in operation despite his presence overseas, and his son Bhushan and nephew Pankaj, both of whom were apprehended and chargesheeted in such a case in 2015, were collecting the money. Satam took a big hit after their arrest and was out of action until 2018, CB sources said.
“However, the fugitive gangster hit a gold mine after he came in contact of Rajesh Ambre alias Bhai (arrested in the current case), who agreed to work for him, and he began making extortion calls to property developers in Mumbai and Thane once again. Ambre has over 50 cases, and he turned out to be invaluable to Satam’s gang owing to his ground-level knowledge,” said a CB officer.
Officials suspect some of the victims also budged and coughed up the money until the Parel-based developer blew the lid off the racket, lodging a complaint against Satam. This led to the arrests of Ambre and other henchmen, Amol Vichare, Bharat Solanki alias Anwar, Bipin Dhotre and Dipak Lodhiya alias Soni alias Rajesh.
