Crime branch officials arrested three people for allegedly threatening a real estate developer and duping him of more than Rs 1 crore.
Crime branch officials arrested three people for allegedly threatening a real estate developer and duping him of more than Rs 1 crore. The officials said that the accused claimed to be gangster Chhota Shakeel’s aides and one of them was also named as an accused in the 1993 serial bomb blasts.
The arrested accused have been identified as Mohammad Ahmed Mansuri alias Ahmad Langda, Hanif Shaikh alias Hanif Motha and Faisal Juneja. According to the officials of the Anti Extortion Cell, who conducted the operation, the victim who has his office at the Ashoka shopping centre in Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) came in contact with Shaikh and Juneja in 2014, when he wanted to purchase a warehouse in Masjid Bunder.
“The complainant was interested in a warehouse which was registered under Juneja’s sister’s name. He bought the same by paying them Rs 1.25 crore and a deal was made to hand over the possession of the property in a month,” said an AEC officer. The accused had decided to give the possession of the property in a months’ time.
However, “once the money reached them, the accused started avoiding the complainant and started making excuses about transferring the rights of the property to him. The complainant finally approached Juneja’s father and was told that Chhota Shakeel will talk to him about the issue,” said an AEC officer.
“They informed the complainant that Shakeel was a partner in the property and was allegedly against selling it. We are verifying this claim,” he added.
Sources inform that the third accused, Mansuri, was named in the 1993 blasts and also has a case against him under Arms Act for being part of a shootout in JJ Hospital in 1992. He was also arrested for threatening former Bandra MLA Baba Siddique.
A team of AEC, headed by senior inspector Vinayak Vast and officers Sachin Kadam, Raju Surve and others arrested the accused in Dongri and JJ Marg areas. The arrests were made after the complainant approached the officials that the trio was threatening him that Shakeel would get in touch with him.
“When the complainant started pressurising them to give possession or return his money, the accused told them that he would have hand over the money to Shakeel. That’s when he approached us,” the officials said.
Sources also add that the complainant received Internet-based phone calls from Romania and Belgium, which he left unanswered.
Officials informed that while Juneja and Shaikh are related to each other, they brought in Mansuri to bring Shakeel into the picture and scare the developer. The arrested accused are remanded to police custody and the police is probing the Shakeel angle.
