In a horrific case of deceit and sustained psychological abuse, a man fooled a senior citizen into thinking that he was a target of a police investigation and proceeded to scare him into paying lakhs of rupees. Not satisfied with this, the accused even convinced the victim that suicide was the only way out and was all set to usurp his property, but was arrested in the nick of time.
According to the Charkop police, the accused has been identified as Vivek Bhadani (35). The police said that in the beginning of June this year, Bhadani checked into a guest house run by the 69-year-old victim in Kandivali, as his house was under renovation. In the next few days, Bhadani became very friendly with the victim, who started sharing details about his day to day affairs with Bhadani.
“On June 6, the victim told Bhadani that he had an argument with one of his employees, and that he would be asking the employee to resign by the end of the month. The victim forgot about it till on June 15, he received an email in the name of the Mumbai Police, claiming that his employee had registered a complaint against him. The terrified victim turned to Bhadani for advice,” said an officer with the Charkop police station.
Bhadani, who had actually sent the email himself, proceeded to convince the victim that he was in deep trouble, that the police would soon start turning up at his door at all hours of the day and night and would even take him to the lock up where he would be assaulted mercilessly. The victim, who had never had anything to do with a police case in the past, started panicking.
“Bhadani told the victim that he had contacts in the police force and could ‘manage’ the case, but that this would cost him money. The victim immediately agreed and under the pretext of bribing concerned police officers, Bhadani took a total of Rs 30.61 lakh from the victim,” the officer said.
Bhadani’s vile plan, however, was just starting. Bhadani kept telling the victim scary tales of what happens to people in the lock up and convinced him to write a note, stating that he - Bhadani - should get control over the victim’s property should anything happen to him. Once this note was written and signed, Bhadani started hinting to the victim that suicide was his only way out.
The victim might have even taken the extreme step but at the last minute, he lost his nerve. Unable to inflict harm on himself, he called up his cousin brother for advice. The cousin immediately saw through Bhadani’s games and made a panicked call to the Charkop police.
“We got the complaint on Wednesday and immediately dispatched a team to talk to the victim. Bhadani was taken into custody and after inquiries made his intentions clear, we placed him under arrest,” said senior police inspector Manohar Shinde, Charkop police station.
Bhadani has been charged with cheating and extortion under the Indian Penal Code, and was produced in court, where he was remanded in police custody till July 12. The police are now probing to find out whether he has similarly targetted other people in the past.
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