Mumbai Crime Branch arrested two people after a developer from the western suburbs received death threats from underworld don Chhota Shakeel's brother Anwar. The threats were allegedly issued at the behest of the arrested accused Kamran Sayyad, 49, and Arbaz Shaikh, 27, said officials.
The complainant in the case has been re-developing a slum pocket in Oshiwara under the Slum Redevelopment Project (SRA). The authority had approved one room belonging to Shaikh. Accordingly, the developer had allotted him a flat. However, Shaikh has been demanding five flats, claiming he owns five rooms. The developer asked him to get an approval from the authority for the other rooms as well. He, however, refused, which led to a dispute between them.
Few days ago, the developer received a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) call from Anwar (whose real name is Shaikh Nasir Ahmed Anwar), who asked him to settle the dispute with Shaikh and threatened him with dire consequences.
The developer then approached the police and an offence under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections for extortion (387) and causing disappearance of evidence (201) was registered at the Oshiwara police station. The investigation has been transferred to the Anti Extortion Cell (AEC) of the crime branch.
During investigation, it was revealed that Shaikh had approached Sayyad, who in turn had contacted Anwar. The two were arrested on Saturday and produced before the Esplanade court, which remanded them to police custody till August 27.
