Their parties may not see eye to eye, but a former Shiv Sena office bearer and a deputy president of MNS decided to strike up their own alliance to extort people
The VP Road police arrested the two political workers on Thursday, revealing that the duo would extort shopkeepers in their area after finding out irregularities in their businesses.
ADVERTISEMENT
The police have arrested a former Shiv Sena shakha pramukh, identified as Santosh Mane (40), and Pranav Tembekar, deputy president of MNS’ Girgaum unit. According to the police, the two men approached the manager of a well-known sweet shop in the CP tank area an outlet of the Bhaishankar Gauri Shankar Mithaiwala chain.
They tried to intimidate the manager by telling him that the godown where the sweets were being made was in a residential area, which is not allowed by the civic body. They threatened to complain to the BMC about this.
“Later, they told the shopkeeper to keep Rs 1 lakh ready by Thursday. Alarmed, the shopkeeper immediately approached the owner of the rented premises, who approached us about the matter,” said Rajendra Chavan, senior police inspector of V P Road police station. The police traced Mane and Tembekar and arrested them on Thursday. They were booked for extortion under Section 387 of IPC, and were remanded in police custody till April 22.
Extortion racket
The duo would approach shopkeepers, point out irregularities in their business, and demand money in return for not complaining to authorities.