Indore cops pose as wannabe actors, nab scribe for abetment from Mumbai

MUMBAI: After posing as struggling actors and making rounds of film studio offices and buildings in the western suburbs for 10 days, a five-member team from Indore police arrested journalist Saloni Arora (40) for her alleged involvement in the suicide of the national group editor of a Hindi publication last month. Arora, who kept moving between cities for two weeks, was nabbed outside a restaurant near Juhu beach on Saturday.
Arora, a former entertainment head of the Hindi daily in Mumbai, was on the run since July 21. She had allegedly demanded Rs 5 crore from Kalpesh Yagnik (55), who ended his life by jumping off the building that houses the newspaper’s office in Indore on July 13. “Arora kept changing her location between Mumbai, Delhi and Meerut. She switched off her phone...but we got technical help to keep a track of her locations,” Indore deputy inspector general of police Harinarayanchari Mishra told TOI.

Arora would tell people she was short of money and ask for their phone to make an emerge-ncy call. The police kept a track of her location from calls to her family members and lawyer in Delhi. Arora convinced a man that her mother was unwell and she didn’t know anyone in the city and he helped her get a new number for Rs 2,200, said an officer, adding that she would wear a burqa or cover her face with a scarf.

Arora lived in a rental flat at Shastri Nagar in Andheri (W), but by the time the Indore police team, including Vijaynagar deputy SP Jayant Rathod, arrived in Mumbai, she escaped. “On July 21, Arora left for Delhi. Two days later, she was traced to her brother’s house in Meerut. But cops failed to nab her,” said an officer. “The team returned to Mumbai on July 25. They then posed as struggling actors to get access to studio offices and buildings in Andheri and Juhu to get information on Arora. But she kept shuttling between hotels and friends’ homes in Andheri, Ghatkopar, Worli, Panvel, Vashi, before she was caught in Juhu.” On Saturday evening, when Arora reached the Juhu restaurant, the cops arrested her and took her to Indore. The Mumbai Police was unaware of the operation.

Arora was transferred from Indore to Mumbai in 2013. In January, Yagnik sacked her and she began allegedly blackmailing him and threatened to implicate him in a false case for misbehaving with her. “A few days before ending his life, Yagnik told additional director general (Indore range) Ajay Kumar Sharma about Arora threatening him,” said inspector Tehzeeb Kazi.