The Samta Nagar police of Kandivali area has arrested an alleged RTI activist for attempting to extort a local construction worker. The 46-year-old accused has been identified as Afzal Lakhani.
The Samta Nagar police of Kandivali area has arrested an alleged RTI activist for attempting to extort a local construction worker. The 46-year-old accused has been identified as Afzal Lakhani.
He was produced in court on Saturday and while further investigation in the case is on, police officials believe that Lakhani is a repeat offender.
According to sources, a local construction site contractor, whom Lakhani had demanded money from, had approached the police on January 22. Later, the police caught him red-handed while Lakhani was accepting the money from the complainant at a hotel in Kandivali (east).
According to the police officials, on January 17 Lakhani approached the contractor and told him that he would file a complaint against him with the police and also inform BMC about his alleged illegal construction work being carried on in Hanuman Nagar area of Kandivali (east). In order to keep mum about it, Lakhani demanded Rs 15,000 from the contractor.
The duo met on January 22 in Kandivali (east) to discuss the settlement when Lakhani again demanded the money. The contractor told him that he needed time to arrange it and asked him to wait at the spot. Then, the contractor approached the police and filed a complaint. Police officials accompanied the complainant to the spot where Lakhani was nabbed while he was accepting the money.
He has been booked under sections 384 (Punishment for extortion) and 506 (Punishment for criminal intimidation) of IPC. The police suspect that the accused is a repeat offender and had on various occasions extorted several people by posing as an RTI activist. According to sources, Lakhani would file RTI queries and after getting their answers, he used to check for loopholes in the works of local contractors and on finding irregularities in their work he would extort them.
