Mumbai: 4 held for trying to extort money on pretext of breach of Covid-19 norms

Four BMC lsquocleanup marshalsrsquo were arrested by MIDC police for allegedly threatening people and extorting money from them for not following Covid19 related norms an official saidThe accused worked with a private security agency which is appointed by the Mumbai civic body to collect fine from those who spit in public places and do not follow other cleanliness norms the police official said on SaturdayThe accused have been identified as Pramod Mane 29 Vishal Suryavanshi 30 Dadasaheb Godse 29 and Aakash Hanumant Gaikwad 29 Another accused Ajit Singh 30 is abscondingThe complainant was identified as Anil Banbarilal Jalan 50 who runs Gift Planet Private limited company at Nandeep Industrial Estate at JB Nagar Andheri East Police said the accused extorted Rs 20000 from JalanAlso ReadMumbai More younger people dying in the second Covid19 wavePSI Abhishek Patil of MIDC police station said On April 21 at 2 pm the accused Ajit Singh entered Gift Planet Company with another coaccused They showed their BMC ID cards and told owner Jalan that he had violated Covid19 guidelines and will have to pay fine or else they will register an FIR against them The marshals then demanded Rs 20000 from Jalan for not filing an FIR Jalan paid them The marshals again came on May 14 at 230 pm and again demanded Rs 20000 They told him if he does not pay he will have to give a fine of Rs 1 lakh Jalan then filed a complaintOur team immediately rushed at spot and caught the four accused while Singh is managed to escaped We also recovered id cards from them and we are verifying it that its original id card of fake IDs Patil addedSpeaking with midday zone 10 DCP Maheshwar Reddy said After arresting accused we contacted to the Assistant officer of Solid Waste management Pankaj Gonge of KEast ward and supervisor Dilip Jadhav and they told us that these accused are contract labourers They were hired for collecting fine from people spitting in public places throwing garbage and roaming without masks Instead of taking fine these accused started threatening people and extorting money from them We have arrested them under sections 384 punishment for extortion and 34 Acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention All accused were produced in court and remanded to police custody for 14 dayswith PTI inputs