FPJ Impact: TADA convict held for threatening Kangana Ranaut’s yoga guru

The Mumbai police has arrested absconding Dawood aide, Arif Lakhani, for allegedly assaulting and threatening actress Kangana Ranaut's yoga guru. Convicted under the stringent TADA law in 1992 Mumbai blasts case, Lakhani was terrorising the residents of posh Versova area to forcibly evict their properties.

Yoga guru Surya Narayan Singh was in hiding for several months after being assaulted and threatened by Lakhani who forced him to evict the flat gifted by Kangana Ranaut as Guru Dakshina to her yoga teacher. On July 22, The FPJ had reported about the issue.

An FIR was registered against him after a senior cop intervened inthe matter following a tweet posted by the actress about harassment to her yoga guru. Versova police station senior inspector Siraj Inamdar confirmed that Lakhani was arrested last week for assaulting and threatening residents of Versova to grab their properties.

A visibly relieved Singh finally returned back to his home after almost 60 days in hiding. He was thankful to the Mumbai police west region additional commissioner Vinayak Deshmukh for taking action against Lakhani. “I m grateful to the Mumbai police for strict action on criminals and assuring me to practise yoga classes at my home in peace,” he said.

A notorious history-sheeter, Lakhani has been named in cases ranging from kidnappings, land grab to forcible eviction of residents. He has grabbed the ground floor shop no 15 of upscale Benzer Apartment on Yari road, Versova making further encroachments to illegally occupy the lobby and adjacent BMC garden for an unauthorised fashion Boutique BMC K ward office had issued a show cause notice for the “unauthorised horizontal extension” and encroaching of public garden on April 11. Subsequently, the building proposal department of the BMC demolished the illegal structure.

Suspecting the yoga guru Singh of complaining to the civic administration, Lakhani barged into the first floor apartment during online yoga class and assaulted the teacher.

Published on: Tuesday, August 09, 2022, 11:18 AM IST