Powai police have arrested a former employee of Hiranandani Group for allegedly extorting ₹10 lakh from the firm and demanding an additional ₹1 crore.
The police said that the accused, Gulab Parkhe, was employed with Hiranandani Garden Powai Community Pvt. Ltd for 27 years as a liasoning officer. The police said that he resigned in November 2016, and left for his home town in Junnar near Pune, where he was elected as a Zilla Parishad member.
An officer said, “After stepping down, Mr. Parkhe started filing complaints about alleged irregularities in the Hiranandani Group’s ongoing construction projects with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and other authorities. He then approached the firm in November 2016 and offered to withdraw the complaints if he was paid ₹20 crore. The sum was brought down to ₹6 crore after negotiations. The firm paid ₹10 lakh as the first installment in January 2017.”
The police laid a trap for Mr. Parkhe at a hotel in Mulund on Wednesday and arrested him when he accepted the pending extortion money.
