MUMBAI, 1 FEB, 2013: Dharavi police on Wednesday arrested a 39-year-old man for carrying out raids at sweet shops in Dharavi, impersonating as a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officer.
He allegedly used to demand money from the shop owners, warning them to pay him ransom, to not take any action against them for keeping 'sub-standard' food items for sale.
The conman — Santosh Damankar — was arrested from Byculla after the cops found out about his whereabouts through details posted on a human rights association website.
Police found out that, Damankar and his two accomplices, used to conduct their raids together to extort money from the shop owners.
The two accomplices are wanted for extorting Rs 8,000 from a Dharavi sweet shop owner on January 24.
"Damankar impersonates as an FDA officer while his two accomplices pose as a scribe and a member of the human rights commission. They targeted shops in Dharavi to extort easy money. The three moved together after raiding the place, the two accomplices, one posing as a human rights activist and the other as a scribe, demanded ransom to avoid any damage to their shops reputation," Dharavi police inspector Milind Kurde said.
Damankar's luck ran short when they called one of the shop owner, Jay Kumar, who runs a farsan shop in Dharavi, to Sion locality to pay them money for not taking action.
"Kumar met Damankar and his two accomplices at Sion and asked them to take him to the police station and file complaint. Hearing this from Kumar, the three ran away. Kumar informed the police about the incident and gave the visiting card that Damankar left at his shop. Later Shakti Nadar also complained that the gang extorted Rs 8,000 from him," said Kurde.
The accused has been booked under IPC sections for 34 (common intention), 170 (personating a public servant) and 384 (extortion).
No comments:
Post a Comment