Duo held for posing as gangsters to extort money

After jewellers from Bandra and Khar complained of receiving extortion calls from men of notorious gangster Ravi Pujari, the Crime Branch swung into action and traced the calls to two first time offenders, a debt-ridden real estate agent and a young boy from Uttar Pradesh, who has just passed his Std XII examinations.

serious threat: The accused Afzal Sheikh (left) and Adnan Khan

The Mumbai Crime Branch unit IX arrested Afzal Sheikh (25) and Adnan Khan (20) on Saturday night for making extortion calls to several jewellers in Mumbai and Pune. The accused would visit the jewellers' shops and under the pretext of business, take visiting cards from the shopkeepers. They would then make calls to the businessmen, posing as Ravi Pujari's men.

Sheikh and Khan were later produced in the Bandra holiday court and remanded in police custody. The Crime Branch has handed over their custody to the Khar police. According to the police, Sheikh, a Malvani resident, had invested heavily in the stock market and suffered huge
losses. A while ago, he visited his hometown in Uttar Pradesh where he met Khan, who had just passed his Std XII exams. He brought Khan to Mumbai by promising him big money.

In the first week of July, the duo called Bharat Jain, a jeweller in Khar, and another Dinesh Mehta, a jeweller based in Bandra, who complained to the police. They also made calls to jewellers in Pune, posing as Ravi Pujari's men.

Senior Police Inspector Sanjay Satardekar of Crime Branch unit IX said, "Based on the information provided by our sources we arrested both the accused Sheikh and Khan in a case of extortion. For further investigation we have given the custody of the accused to the Khar police." u00a0