A 43-year-old man, son of a retired senior police inspector, was arrested in an extortion case filed by the Malabar Hill police station.
According to Mid-Day, He and an accomplice had posed as police officers and threatened to book the victim unless he paid them. The accused was identified as Samir Shaikh (43). The incident took place on June when Shaikh and his accomplice entered White House building at Malabar Hill, where they threatened a man under the Narcotics, Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS). The duo told the victim that they had a tip-off about narcotics substances kept at his house and he would be booked if he did not cough up money.
The victim got scared and handed the duo Rs 1.65 lakh cash, after which they disappeared. Later the victim, identified as Varun Mehta (34) realised that he had been cheated and approached the Malabar Hill police, where the case was registered under sections 384 (extortion), 34 (common intention) 447 (criminal trespass) and 416 (personation) of Indian Penal Code against unknown people.
After the case of registered the cops began an investigation, while they were scanning CCTV footage. They spotted Shaikh and based on technical evidence including CCTV footage, Shaikh was arrested on June 30 from Thane. Shaikh's father is a retired senior inspector from Mumbai police and was also in the traffic division, reported the leading daily.
"Shaikh had been booked in a murder case in 2010. He was out on bail when he committed the offence at Malabar Hill. We have arrested him and his accomplice is still at large. We are on the lookout for him. We are also probing why they zeroed in on White House in Malabar Hill," an officer told the leading daily.
