Ashwin Naik remanded to police custody

A local magistrate court in Bhoiwada on Monday remanded gangster Ashwin Naik to police custody till December 24, in an extortion case. He was caught red-handed by the Dadar police on Sunday while accepting extorted money.

The Dadar police demanded his custody on the ground that it wanted to recover earlier extorted money and vehicles from him.

Naik was allegedly repeatedly extorting a real estate developer based in Central Mumbai. Acting on the developer’s complaint, a trap was laid around noon and Naik was arrested soon after he accepted the money in Dadar. Naik and his aides arrived in two cars at the given spot on Bhavani Shankar Road, which is near Dadar police station. The bag in which was kept Rs 15 lakh — the first installment of the extortion money, has been seized along with two Innovas belonging to the gangster.

The Dadar police also said that it needed to convince witnesses to testify against Naik because they were scared of giving evidence against the dreaded gangsters and they also want to collect other forms of evidence against Naik.

A police official said, “We are investigating with other builders as to whether Naik had extorted money from them or not. Till now no other has come forward to lodge a complaint. We have to collect evidence and gather witnesses against him, therefore we have demanded his custody.”

Naik was last arrested in 2012 for extorting and assaulting BMC officials.