The Crime Branch’s central unit has arrested a 27-year-old female advocate for trying to extort Rs20 lakh from a hotel association group in Navi Mumbai.
Akshata Upadhyay, a resident of Nerul, was caught red-handed while accepting Rs10,000 at a restaurant in Vashi.
According to police, Upadhyay, a B Com-LLB passout, had started practising law last December. From April, she started making complaints against hotels, restaurants and wine shops in Belapur area with the Encroachment Department of Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation. The complaints were about encroachment of the hotels on the footpath area. The police received complaints from eight establishments against Upadhyay.
Finally, hotel association officials met with Upadhyay in May wherein she demanded Rs 20 lakh for settlement and for not making any more complaints. Accordingly, they further decided to meet on May 29 at a restaurant in Vashi. Meanwhile, the association met with Crime Branch and told them about the extortion and the police laid a trap and nabbed her while accepting Rs10,000 of the total amount.
“After the news of her arrest went viral, more establishments started contacting us. Till now, eight of them have approached us,” Senior Inspector Sunil Shinde said.
Upadhyay will be presented before the court of Thursday.
