Mumbai: For Hemendra Patel, a Girgaum-based businessman, Saturday morning was just another day to finish his business assignment. Midway to completing the work, he found himself in a frightening situation.
Patel, who deals in precious gems, took to Twitter to narrate the harrowing incident. He stated that he was accosted by two policemen from the JJ Marg police station at around 8am on Saturday and demanded extortion money.
Promptly acting on the complaint, the police on Saturday arrested two of their personnel involved in the crime.
“Patel, a resident of the VP Road in Girgaum, was going to meet some business associates with his cousin when the duo stopped him. They asked him to get inside the police van and refused to let him call anyone. Threatening to book him under various charges, the duo demanded ₹50,000 from him and ultimately settled at ₹10,000,” said an officer with the JJ Marg police station.
Following this tweet, Patel was contacted by the Mumbai police’s web cell, which took details of the incident from him and passed them on to the JJ Marg police station along with Patel’s contact details. The police then called Patel for inquiries and based on his statement, identified the two cops as assistant sub-inspector Sunil Vartak and police constable Vijay Gaikwad.
“Both were arrested on Saturday evening and charged with extortion and wrongful restraint under the Indian Penal Code. They were subsequently released on bail. A departmental enquiry has been initiated against them and the process of their suspension has also been put into motion,” the officer said.
The police are now checking Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) camera footage of the junction where the police van was parked and also obtaining cellular locations of both the accused as well as the victim to gather corroborative evidence.
When contacted, senior police inspector Subhash Borade confirmed the incident but declined to go into the details of the matter.