Mumbai: The Thane police have registered an extortion case against former police commissioner Param Bir Singh, encounter specialist Pradeep Sharma, gangster Ravi Pujari and 25 others.
The other accused include then deputy commissioner of police Deepak Devray, assistant commissioner of police NT Kadam, police inspector Rajkumar Kothmire, ASI More, police constables Chaudhary, Vikas Dabade, Ritesh Shah, Bimal Agarwal, Gangster Ravi Pujari, Sanjay Punamiya, Anil Singh, Bachi Singh, Zuber Mujawar, Sunil Desai, Manish Shah, Kishore Agarwal, Barkha Agarwal, Binu Varghese, Tariq Parveen, Deva Bhanushali, Ankit Bhanushali, Vishal Kariya, Pradeep Sodani, Prashant Kothari, Deepak Kupar and Nagesh.
The case was registered on the complaint filed by Ketan Tanna (52), a builder and bookie. Tanna in his statement to police alleged that the accused police officers and others threatened him and bookie Sonu Jalan of filing a false case against them and would kill them in an encounter. Threatening through different channels, they abused and demand money in return for not implicating them in a false case, Tanna has alleged. "After we refused to give the cash, they registered a false case of kidnapping and extortion at Thane Nagar police station and arrested us in the case," added Tanna in his statement to police.
Tanna added, "They threatened to seize our properties in a case and demanded Rs 1.25 crore from me and 3.45 crore from Jalan. They used to call our friend to the Anti-Extortion cell office and took money under the pretext of implicating them in the case."
The police said all this happened between January 2018 and February, 2019 at Thane Anti-extortion office and Infinity Mall in Goregaon.
Tanna and Sonu Jalan gave a written complaint to the state DGP against the harassment. "We kept approaching and complaining to the higher authorities regarding the extortion. An inquiry was initiated by the police and after three months the case was registered. It was a complete syndicate of police and gangsters who were operating to extort money. The Maharashtra police should book them in MCOCA act," said Sonu Jalan.
The Thane Nagar police have registered a case under section 384, 386, 387, 389, 324, 323, 392, 504, 506, 506 (2), 109, 166, 120 (b) of the Indian penal code and sections of the Arms Act.
