The Vashi police has arrested a youth and an SSC student for allegedly extorting around Rs 2 lakh from a 12-year-old boy after threatening him they would implicate him in some fraud case and he would be arrested.
The duo had also befriended the boy, forced him to smoke cigarettes and clicked photographs of him before threatening they would inform his father about it, the police said.
The victim, a class 8 student and the accused Sunny Patil (21) and a minor, a 14-year-old boy are all residents of Juhu gao of Vashi.
The accused befriended the victim six months ago and they used to roam together during the victim’s tuition hours.
The victim is a student of prominent English medium school and his father is a fruits export businessman. “The accused knew about the victim’s father wealth and therefore they decided to take money from him. The accused Sunny has indulged in several illegal activities. They would harass the victim while he was going to school and coming back from classes. The victim started stealing money from his father’s locker and bag when no one used to be there in his house,” a police source said.
The victim’s father started getting suspicious after he lost Rs 50,000 one day from his locker. He then he installed CCTV cameras in the house without telling anyone, after which he saw his son stealing Rs 10,000 from his bag. On learning the reason behind his son’s behaviour, the businessman informed the police. A senior police official said, “We came to know the accused had extorted a few other English medium school students as well. He only harassed English-medium students as he feels they are rich.”
