Three including Sanjay Nirupam’s relative, held for extortion

Mumbai: The Mumbai crime branch has arrested three persons, including the relative of a senior Congress leader, for trying to extort money from a film producer.

The relative of the Congress leader threatened the film producer to make him a co-producer and when the demand was not fulfilled, tried to extort Rs 25 lakhs from the producer.

The arrested accused have been identified as Shashank Suman (33), who is the Congress leader’s relative; Bhupesh Kumar (36); and Rohan Redekar (27).

The film producer approached the Bangur Nagar police after he received calls demanding Rs 25 lakhs and the caller claimed to be a gangster. The caller made multiple calls to the producer early May and continued to threaten him.

A crime branch officer said, “He threatened to harm the producer’s family if the demand was not met or the police was informed about it. The caller had made voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) calls and hence, they were difficult to trace.”

The police arrested the caller from Gorai, during whose interrogation, the names of two of his accomplices came to the fore. The duo was picked up from Malad’s Evershine Nagar following which it was found that one of them was a director who had worked with the producer in the past.

A monetary dispute between them over a past project prompted the director to exact revenge on the producer by trying to extort money from him.

The accused have been booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and Information Technology Act by the Bangur Nagar police station. The crime branch officials have handed over the accused to the local police for further investigation.