Unidentified man booked for bid to extort Sena MLA, impersonate cop

The incident occurred last Thursday when the Kurar Police received a call from a person who claimed to be “Police Inspector Ramesh Singh from Sanjan Police Station in Gujarat”. Singh needed information about a case that he was investigating.

When Police Inspector Manoj Chalke, who is the complainant in the case, called Singh back, the latter claimed he had arrested a person with illegal firearms who had confessed to a murder.

“The man said he had arrested someone who was claiming he had committed a murder at Maharashtra MLA Sunil Prabhu’s behest,” Chalke said in his statement. The caller then asked the Maharashtra police to provide him with Prabhu’s contact and whereabouts.

Singh then called up Prabhu and is said to have demanded money from him.

“The caller demanded Rs 5 lakh from Prabhu, who refused to pay the amount. The caller then said if action was taken against Prabhu, he would have to face questions raised by the Opposition in the forthcoming Mumbai Municipal Corporation elections. Prabhu then agreed to pay Rs 2 lakh and asked him to send over a person to collect the money. The caller insisted that Prabhu pay the amount through Gpay,” the statement read.

Prabhu then reached out to Kurar Police, who had by then started their own investigation when they realised they had received a call from a person impersonating a police officer.

“Chalke had reached out to the police station in Valsad when he learnt that no person named Ramesh Singh Chauhan was working there,” said an officer.

Chalke’s statement was recorded after which a case was registered under sections 170 (personating a public servant), 385 (extortion) and 389 (putting person in fear of accusation of offence, in order to commit extortion) of the Indian Penal Code.

When contacted, Prabhu confirmed the incident and said he had intimated the police about the call he had received.