Scribe arrested in extortion case

The Khar police has after almost four months traced and arrested a journalist of a news portal, who is said to be the “mastermind” in an extortion case, where he with his aides allegedly tried to extort money for the second time from a hotelier in Khar (west).

“The main accused identified as Sagar Singh was arrested from Andheri after we received a tip off about him hiding there. He had left his family and house, so we couldn’t trace him. He was living there on rent,” said senior police inspector Dattatray Bargude of Khar police station.

The police have seized Singh’s visiting card, which says he is the Maharashtra bureau chief of an online news portal ‘Rashtra Khabar’. According to the Khar police, Sushant Bhosale (37), the complainant in the case, runs Hotel Gopal Krishna lunch home. He approached the police station on October 8 around 3 am to register the extortion case.

The accused used to extort money from the hotelier, threatening to “expose him” for running his business at night beyond the stipulated period. They extorted money from him once in the past, claiming that they had good contacts in the police.

“The hotelier, under fear that two of them were from the press, coughed up the money. But, they continued to extort from him after which he decided to approach us. All the accused used to go to his hotel in two different cars to demand the money. They demanded Rs 50,000 and ended up taking Rs 12,000,” added Mr Bargude.

The police have seized the Swift and Innova automobiles from the accused that were used in the crime. Two more hoteliers have come forward as witnesses against them. The accused were rounded up from the Khar area and placed under arrest. They have been identified as Aslam Kazi (36), Ajay Gupta (28), a News India reporter, Abhishek Dorwani (30) a News India reporter, Keshav Naidu (24) and Gaurav Singh (27). They have been booked under section 384, 323, 504, and 34 of the IPC.