Extortionist who posed as MP a repeat offender

Rajesh Mishra, who stands accused of carrying out extortion activities in the name of BJP MP Gopal Shetty, is a repeat offender and has several cases registered against him, said police sources. In fact, his latest extortion attempt came immediately after his release from prison.

According to the sources, Mishra was imprisoned in 2011 for calling a developer while posing as Shiv Sena leader Subhash Desai and demanding money. After a while, he came out and fell sick. Immediately after recovering, he called a Borivali-based developer, Lalji Solanki, posing as Mr Shetty, and demanded '1 lakh.

The sources informed The Asian Age that accused Mishra has cases registered against him in Charkop, Kandivali, Malad and Goregaon police stations for similar crimes. According to sources, Mishra never stays in a same place for long and he often changes his address. He has a daughter and he stays in rented rooms with his family.

Police officials now suspect that ‘Iqbal’, the man claimed to be Mr Shetty’s personal assistant and another wanted in the case, does not exist at all, and it was Mishra all along who was posing as the PA on the phone.

The extortion call incident happened on November 2, when Solanki received a phone call in his office around 3.15 pm. The caller claimed to be the personal assistant of Mr Shetty and said he was handing over the phone to the MP. Then, ‘Mr Shetty’, said, “I have to stage a demonstration and inaugurate an ambulance service for which I need funds.” The caller demanded money from Mr Solanki who agreed to pay '1 lakh over the phone. After this, Mr Solanki told the caller to come to his office to receive the money and when, on November 4, Mishra reached his office the former took him to the Kandivali police station, where the police arrested him.