Three arrested for trying to extort Rs7 crore from Mumbai developer

The police have arrested three people for trying to extort Rs7 crore from a developer based in Dadar. A real estate investor is wanted in the case, who had hired the three accused to extort Rs 7 crores from the builder. The investor had invested money in the developer’s project.

The arrested accused are identified as Attar Ahmad Afsar alias Attar Dubai alias Attar Hyderabadi, 33, Ashfaq Ali Khan Mir, 36, and Mohammed Irshad Ahmed, 31.

According to Dadar police, the complainant developer (name withheld) has his project in Dadar. The wanted accused had invested Rs7 crore in his project and had booked a flat. But due to some reasons the project got stuck mid-way. This caused losses to the accused investor. Hence, in order to recover his money from the developer, he approached Attar Dubai from Hyderabad and gave him a contract to recover his money. He offered Attar Rs1.50 crore for the work, said police.

Since March 5, 2018, Attar started calling and threatening the developer, claiming that he has more influence than gangster Chotta Shakeel, Chotta Rajan and Ravi Pujari.

“He threatened the complainant to return the cash to the investor by March 31 or he will be shot dead. Attar repeatedly threatened the complainant on many occasions and also sent the two accused, Mir and Ahmed, to visit the complainant’s office and the construction site. They also threatened the developer with a revolver. The two also followed developer’s car on a motorcycle. Scared with the threatening calls, the complainant approached Dadar police and registered a case,” added the police official.

Dadar police station registered a case under section 384 (Punishment for extortion), 506 (2) (criminal Intimidation) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian penal code and after acting on specific inputs arrested the three on Saturday.

“The investor who had given the contract to the three is yet to be arrested. Also, we are checking the background of Attar with the Hyderabad police to check if he has any criminal record,” added the official.

“The arrested accused’s were produced in court on Sunday and will be in police custody for two days. We are further investigating the matter and more arrests are expected,” said Divakar Shelke, Senior Police Inspector, Dadar police station.