Thane: Anti Extortion Cell busts fake finance recovery racket; 8 held

The Anti-extortion Cell of the Thane crime branch have arrested eight people and have busted a racket cheating finance company and victims having bank EMI dues for vehicles.

The police said the accused were pretending to be officials from a finance company and used illegally to seize the vehicles having pending EMI dues. They later used to demand cash to release the vehicles.

The police said Shadab Khan (24), proprietor of Sharon enterprises informed the police about a few local goons preparing fake identities and false documents of a finance company and are looting victims. "These goons had received data of bank defaulters and seized their motorcycles to later demand cash from them. These goons had stopped an auto-rickshaw in January 2021. They moved out the passengers to take the auto on the Padgha-Shahapur road and demanded Rs 25,000. As the victim refused to pay they kept the auto-rickshaw with them," said a police officer.

On the written complaint of the auto-rickshaw driver Samir Shaikh, a case was registered at Vartak Nagar police station under relevant sections of the Indian penal code on February 15.

The police team arrested eight people including Kunal Gharat, Prashant Kirpan, 25, Dilip Wagh, 26, Akash Vise, 26, Durgesh Raut, 29, Amir Shaikh, 21, Ajay Vise, 23 and Kiran Sable, 35.

Maloji Shinde, senior police inspector, Anti-extortion Cell confirmed the illegal racket being busted and said eight people have been arrested.

The police team have seized 11 motorcycles, 2 auto-rickshaws, 1 laptop and 10 mobile phones a total worth Rs 4.80 lakhs.

The ANC sleuths claim to have also solved the murder case of one Sunil Deshmukh. He complained about the cheating to the Ulhasnagar police. However, to take revenge, Raut along with others had killed him.

"Raut confessed to the crime and said he pushed Deskmukh from a bridge into the running water of the river. Accidental death was later converted to a murder case at Vasind police station," said a police officer.