Extortion victim scared to claim his seized cash

Belagavi: Even after police arrested the main accused in a major extortion case, the complainant has not claimed the money recovered from the accused.
The money has been deposited in court and yet, the complainant has allegedly not claimed the money out of fear of underworld don Rashid Malabari, the main accused in the case.

Rashid Malabari’s gang had allegedly kidnapped Sharief Yaragatti, a builder from Kotwal Galli here for ransom in April 2017.

The gang had called the builder to Hanuman Nagar pretending to be property buyers. When he went there, they bundled him into a car and threatened him with a gun. Malabari himself allegedly put a gun to Sharief’s head and introduced himself by showing videos about him on YouTube.

According to police sources, a scared Sharief called his son Malik Yaragatti to pay the gang the ransom. Malabari released Sharief after getting Rs 3.5 lakh. Until Malik came with the money, the car was said to be constantly moving on the Pune-Bengaluru National Highway. After the incident, Sharief registered a complaint at Malmaruti police station.

Police then arrested four of the six accused in the case - Muzaffar Shaikh of Kakatives, Imtiyaz Dalayat of Ashok Nagar, Imtiyaz alias Babalu Batkali of Shrinagar and Nitin Kadam from Ramnagar in Uttar Kannada district.

Main accused Rashid Malabari and his aide Salman managed to evade arrest. Police recovered Rs 45,000 from the accused and deposited it in court.

Even after one and half years, the complainant hasn’t claimed the money fearing the Malabari gang.

According to Malmaruti PSI Gaddekar, Sharief is so scared that he is not even willing to identify the accused. Public prosecutor Shinde said the case will be strengthened if the complainant claims the money.

How case was cracked

Gaddekar told TOI that the case was a tough one to crack as Rashid Malabari knew how police investigation takes place. “Malabari never uses the same SIM card and cell phone after one call and he destroys them alter,” he said. “We found one suspicious call on the cellphone of accused Muzaffar Shaikh, who had used more than 150 SIM cards in his cellphone. Out of curiosity, we arrested him and could get more details about the incident,” Gaddekar told TOI.