Four people have been arrested in Thane for allegedly attempting to extort Rs 50 lakh from a former councillor after blackmailing him, officers said on Monday. According to news agency PTI, the complainant is a former councillor from the Kulgaon Badlapur Municipal Council. He had received an objectionable photograph of himself with a woman. The sender of the message allegedly demanded Rs 50 lakh from him to not make the photo viral, a police release said. Last month, the former councillor approached the police, following which they worked on various leads and arrested a 32-year-old man from Badlapur area in Thane on March 15, the release further stated.Based on his interrogation, the police subsequently arrested three of his associates, PTI reported. The accused had earlier been involved in dacoity, drug-related and other criminal cases, the police added. Thane court acquits three men in extortion and murder conspiracy case A court in Thane has acquitted three men accused of attempting to extorty money and conspiring to murder a man, citing lack of substantial evidence to support the charges. According to PTI, Principal District and Sessions Judge SB Agrawal passed the order on March 4, stating that the prosecution failed to prove the allegations beyond reasonable doubt. A copy of the order was made available last week. As per PTI, the prosecution alleged that the accused, identified as Mohmmed Arafat alias Guddu alias Sayko alias Chikna Arif Lokhandwala and Javed Umardin Mansoori, both aged 40, and Shakir Umardin Mansoori, 46, all residents of Shanti Nagar in the Mira Road area of Maharashtra’s Thane district, conspired to extort Rs 25 lakh from the complainant. The alleged conspiracy took place between December 5, 2021, and March 20, 2022. The prosecution claimed that the accused had been closely monitoring the complainant’s movements, gathering details about his residence, office, and vehicle, and sharing the information with their associates via WhatsApp. They also allegedly received two pistols and live cartridges as part of the plot. However, the police's Anti-Extortion Cell apprehended them before the plan could be carried out, according to PTI reports. During the trial, the defence counsel challenged the prosecution’s version, highlighting inconsistencies and questioning the credibility of the evidence. The court observed that the forensic reports failed to establish the involvement of the accused in the crime. The video footage and photographs presented by the prosecution did not clearly identify the accused, nor was there any conclusive proof that they had contacted the complainant directly to demand the extortion money. Furthermore, the court noted that the prosecution was unable to establish ownership or usage of the seized documents, SIM cards, and USB drives by the accused. The court stated that there was no direct evidence linking the accused to the extortion attempt or the alleged conspiracy to commit murder. As a result, the court ruled that the prosecution had failed to present sufficient evidence to substantiate the charges. Consequently, the court acquitted all three accused — Lokhandwala, Shakir Mansoori, and Javed Mansoori — of the charges of extortion and criminal conspiracy. (With PTI inputs)
17 March,2025 11:45 AM IST | Thane | mid-day online correspondentArunachalam Ullahanathan, a wanted accused in the New India Cooperative Bank scam, surrendered to the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) officials after evading arrest for over a month. According to EOW officials, Ullahanathan was taken into custody after surrendering in Mumbai and was subsequently produced before the Esplanade court. The 62-year-old, who worked as an electrical contractor, had met the key accused former General Manager Hitesh Mehta before becoming involved in the New India Cooperative Bank fraud. Authorities allege that Mehta misappropriated Rs 40 crore and handed it over to Ullahanathan. “The main accused, Hitesh Mehta, confessed that he had given Rs 40 crore to Arunachalam,” a police officer said. (Left) Hitesh Mehta, former GM of the New India Co-operative Bank produced in the Esplanade court. FILE PIC/ASHISH RAJE Following this, Ullahanathan allegedly transferred Rs 15 crore to his son, Manohar. “The father handed over the money to his son. We arrested him, but he couldn’t provide any information about his son’s whereabouts. After a thorough investigation, the court granted him judicial custody,” police added. Investigators revealed that Ullahanathan initially came into contact with Mehta while working on an electrical project at the bank’s Prabhadevi branch. “He worked as a contractor and had approached Mehta for payment regarding an electrical job. It was then that Mehta informed him about the misappropriated funds and handed over the cash. We suspect they first met in 2013,” the police officer said. On February 16, Ullahanathan went absconding, prompting EOW officials to issue a lookout circular (LOC). Authorities suspected he had fled abroad and even announced a reward for information leading to his arrest. However, on Sunday, he surrendered near Crawford Market, after which officials took him into custody. This marks the sixth arrest in the Rs 40 crore embezzlement case. On Friday, police arrested Kapil Dedhia, who allegedly received Rs 12 crore from the misappropriated funds. “A portion of the money was given to Dedhia by Arunachalam,” police disclosed. Ullahanathan has been remanded to police custody until March 18.
17 March,2025 10:48 AM IST | Mumbai | Apoorva AgasheA 39-year-old automobile engineer, Sachin Sambare, who was imprisoned for nearly five years on rape charges, was released on bail on March 10 after filing a petition in the Bombay High Court from jail, alleging that he was a victim of an extortion racket involving women lawyers, police officers and others. The petitioner, Sachin Sambare, claimed that certain women lawyers befriend men on a matrimonial site, dating apps and other social media platforms and eventually coerce them into entering physical relationships. Later, they demand vast amounts of money, threatening them with false rape accusations. He alleged that he fell victim to such a gang after coming in contact with a woman lawyer in 2017 and was subsequently wrongfully imprisoned for four years and nine months. After coming across multiple similar cases in newspapers, he filed an RTI to gather information about the woman lawyer who accused him. The RTI revealed that the lawyer who accused him of rape had allegedly ruined the lives of at least five other men using an identical modus operandi. He obtained details of six rape FIRs registered in various police stations. Additionally, 22 criminal cases had been filed against the complainant and her family across Maharashtra and the charges included cheating, extortion, forgery, trespassing and theft. Petitioner’s allegations Sambare, a resident of Vikramgarh, Palghar, was working as a manager for an international bus brand. In a conversation with mid-day, he alleged that the woman who accused him of rape is part of a larger extortion racket. “The modus operandi of the syndicate, which includes women lawyers, is to befriend working men, get into physical relationships with them and later fabricate financial troubles to ask for money. If the men refuse, they blackmail them with false rape accusations. Members of this gang even appear as witnesses in the FIRs,” he said. Once a complaint is lodged, a specific police officer from the station concerned summons the accused for an “inquiry,” threatening them with arrest. The officer then suggests a settlement, demanding large sums of money to make the case disappear. Sambare recounted that he met the woman in 2017 on Shaadi.com, where she introduced herself as a lawyer—though she was not one at that time, as she obtained her law degree only in 2021. Over time, their conversations deepened, and they began meeting regularly. She frequently asked him for money under various pretexts, and he provided financial help multiple times. However, in 2019, when she asked for R5 lakh and he refused, she filed a rape complaint against him at Rabale police station. The investigating officer demanded R10 lakh to “settle” the case, but when he refused, he was arrested on June 23, 2020. The officer seized his car and also froze his bank account. “The investigating officer was in close contact with the complainant’s lawyers. After my arrest, he pressured my family members, which led my mother to withdraw R2 lakh from an ATM and hand it over to him. The officer then froze my bank account,” Sambare said. “During the pandemic, when my mother fell seriously ill, my family had no money for her treatment. Since my bank account was frozen, they were unable to withdraw funds. Due to the lack of money, my mother did not receive timely medical care and tragically passed away,” he added. “After my arrest, an officer from the Rabale Police demanded R10 lakh from my family. When we refused to pay, he defamed me by spreading false news in the media, claiming that I had duped more than 30 women. However, when the charge sheet was filed, no other names appeared—only the woman who was the main complainant in my case,” he said. Behind bars While in jail, Sambare read newspapers and came across cases from Punjab and Haryana, where high courts had rejected the bail application of a woman accused of honey-trapping and filing nine fake rape cases within 14 months. Similarly, the Jabalpur bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court took cognisance of another woman filing six cases from 2016 to 2022, all accusing men of ‘raping her on the pretext of marriage’. Last year, the Karnataka High Court dealt with multiple rape cases filed by a woman, who had accused 10 different people of rape over 10 years. The court directed the state DGP to alert all police stations about such fake cases. “I sought information from the department concerned through RTI regarding how many rape cases the lawyer had registered, against whom, and in which police stations. It was not easy, but after multiple appeals, I started receiving information. The RTI responses revealed that from 2012 to 2025, she had filed rape charges against six people, including me, in Vashi, Tilak Nagar, Palghar, Rabale, CBD Belapur, and, most recently, at Lonavala Gramin police station in February 2025. All the accused were doctors, engineers, government employees and businessmen. After gathering information, I found that some had been acquitted, some were out on bail, and in some cases, a B-summary had been filed. In the case registered at the Lonavala police station, she accused a man working in London of raping her on the pretext of marriage. I compiled details from these reports, along with high court orders, and submitted them to the Navi Mumbai commissioner and other police officials, demanding an inquiry and action against the woman. However, no officer took my complaint seriously,” he said. Legal recourse “In September 2024, I filed a writ petition in the high court, submitting judgments from Punjab, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh, along with records of the six rape cases filed by the lawyer and 206 pages of supporting documents,” Sambare said. “Meanwhile, I applied for bail twice in the sessions court and twice in the high court. Each time, the accused lawyer appeared in court with her legal team, alleging that I was threatening and defaming her. As a result, my bail applications were rejected. The court never heard my petitions on merit. In January this year, I sent a reminder letter to the court requesting a hearing on my pending writ petition,” he added. Observing that genuine rape cases suffer due to false allegations, a Bombay High Court division bench of Justices Revati Mohite-Dere and Dr Neela Gokhale directed the director general of police (DGP), Maharashtra, to investigate the claims made by the petitioner and submit a report to the court within eight weeks. Sambare has also sought an inquiry against a police officer allegedly involved in filing false rape cases. “This false case has destroyed my world, my career—everything. I don't know how I will rebuild my life. Strict action must be taken against women who misuse the law for their advantage so that this kind of crime can be stopped,” he said. Activist Speak Deepika Narayan Bhardwaj, documentary filmmaker and director of Ekam Nyaay Foundation, said, "Thanks to Justice Revati Mohite Dere and Justice Neela Gokhale this man is being heard after suffering for years. Otherwise, no one in the system cares about plight of false rape case accused. I know of at least four more cases within Mumbai where one woman has filed multiple rape cases against different men, alleging false promise of marriage by all in order to either force marriage or extortion. I had personally written to the Mumbai police commissioner to form a special investigation team to look into one such case, but there was no response. It is a tragedy that and police, who are themselves custodians of law are abusing rape laws. If they are not shying away from misusing law to commit extortion, imagine what regular people would be doing. Lives are being destroyed due to false rape cases. I have worked on cases where men are victims of serial rape case filers who have filed anything from three to 19 rape cases only to extort money and police has taken no action. It is time to stop this menace. I hope the chief minister takes cognisance of this case and orders an inquiry into all such cases across Maharashtra. 'Allegations are baseless' Meanwhile, Tukaram Nimbalkar, the police officer who arrested Sambare, stated, "All the allegations against me are false and baseless. The Human Rights Commission has also conducted an inquiry into the matter. The ACP of Vashi division had carried out an investigation, but the report did not support the claims made by the complainant [Sambare]. Now that the court has ordered an inquiry, the truth will finally come to light. Asked why Sambare's bank account was frozen, he said, "The accused was absconding, which necessitated this action."
16 March,2025 11:17 PM IST | Mumbai | Samiullah KhanMumbai Customs on Sunday said that it seized Rs 8.47 crore worth of gold at Mumbai airport in multiple operations over the week. It said that between March 13 and 15, Mumbai Customs officers at Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International (CSMI) Airport seized a huge quantity of 24KT gold in four different cases. The officials said that in total, 10.923 kg of gold was recovered which is valued at approximately Rs 8.47 crore in the market. In one of the cases, the Mumbai Customs officials stopped an airport staff member on suspicion and found six oval-shaped capsules containing gold dust in wax hidden in the pockets of his pants. "The total gross weight of the recovered gold was 2936 grams, and the net weight was 2800 grams, valued at Rs 2.28 crore. The airport staff member was arrested under the Customs Act, 1962," said an official. In an another operation, an airport staff member, working in the international departure area, was intercepted by Customs officers. Seven oval-shaped capsules containing gold dust in wax were concealed in his underwear. The total gross weight was 3031 grams, and the net weight was 2900 grams. "The seized gold values at Rs 2.36 crore in the matter. The staff member was later placed under arrested," said the official statement. In one of the operations, during the night shift, a third airport staff member was stopped, and Mumbai Customs officers recovered two pouches containing 24KT gold dust in wax from his undergarment. The total gross weight was 1687 grams, and the net weight was 1610 grams, valued at Rs 1.31 crore. Further investigation led to the arrest of three individuals, including the airport staff member, the officials said. They said that, in a separate case, while inspecting garbage bags from an international flight, the officials from the Mumbai Customs department discovered two black pouches containing gold dust in wax inside the trash. The pouches weighed 3.269 kg gross and 3.120 kg net, valued at Rs 2.53 crore. "The gold was concealed in the garbage from the aircraft’s lavatories and pantry, the officials said, adding that in all four cases, the seized gold was confiscated under the Customs Act, 1962 and further investigations were ongoing.
16 March,2025 10:05 PM IST | Mumbai | Faizan KhanA domestic help has filed a complaint against her employer for allegedly raping her in Goregaon area of Mumbai, the police said on Sunday, adding that the accused is on the run and efforts were on to nab him, reported the IANS. The victim has alleged that she was repeatedly raped by her employer on at least two occasions at her employer's house in Bangur Nagar area of Goregaon in norther Mumbai, police said. She told the police that the sexual assaults took place while the family members of the accused were away from home, the police said, the IANS reported. According to the IANS, the family of the 35-year-old woman registered the rape case on Saturday at Bangur Nagar Police Station, following which she was taken for a medical test, an official said. The 40-year-old accused raped the domestic help on two successive days in the past fortnight and threatened her not to tell anyone about it or else he would harm her physically, police said, the news agency reported. The suspect has been booked under section of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) that deal with rape and criminal intimidation, police said. After the accused raped the victim on the first day, the victim was petrified and avoided mentioning the incident to anyone in her family. The accused, allegedly took advantage of her silence and raped her the next day as well while his family members were away, the police said, as per the IANS. A police official said that the woman did not muster the courage to go to work on the third day and quit the part-time domestic help job at the accused's house. On Saturday, when the victim’s family inquired about her decision to stop working and staying home for some days, she opened up and told them about the horrific incident at her employer’s home, the police said, according to the IANS. Thereafter, her family did not waste any time and filed a rape complaint at Bangur Nagar Police Station. The police registered a case and has began to search and nab the accused. (with IANS inputs)
16 March,2025 06:13 PM IST | Mumbai | mid-day online correspondentThe Economic Offences Wing (EOW) has arrested Ulhanathan Arunachalam, a key accused in the New India Cooperative Bank scam, from the Crawford Market area. Arunachalam had been absconding since the Rs 122 crore embezzlement case came to light. According to EOW officials, Arunachalam allegedly received Rs 40 crore from the misappropriated funds. During interrogation, the main accused, Hitesh Mehta, revealed that he had handed over Rs 40 crore in cash to Arunachalam. Earlier, Arunachalam’s son, Manohar Arunachalam, was arrested by the EOW for assisting his father in evading arrest and for allegedly receiving Rs 15 crore from him. The EOW had declared Ulhanathan Arunachalam absconding and announced a reward for information leading to his capture. He was finally apprehended near Crawford Market yesterday and produced before the court today. This marks the sixth arrest in the case. Arunachalam was on Sunday produced before the Esplanade Court in Mumbai that remanded him to police custody till March 18. - with inputs from Apoorva Agashe
16 March,2025 03:54 PM IST | Mumbai | Faizan KhanThe Mumbai Customs seized gold worth Rs 3.67 crore in separate operations and arrested four persons, including a woman, at the international airport in the city, an official said on Sunday, reported news agency PTI. The official said that three of the accused worked at stores in the airport and were allegedly helping members of a smuggling racket to carry gold out of the premises. He said the seizures were made on the intervening night of Thursday and Friday, and customs officials detained one Pradip Pawar, who worked at the airport, on suspicion, reported PTI. Officials recovered pouches of gold dust from Pawar, who had concealed them in his pants, and on questioning, he revealed that he had received the consignment from transit passengers, the official said. He said Pawar stated that he was supposed to hand the gold over to another accused, Mohammed Imran Nagori. The official said Nagori, who was subsequently nabbed, gave the name of Anshu Gupta, who worked at the airport and had handed him four pouches of gold dust smuggled by transit passengers, reported PTI. Authorities arrested Gupta, a sales associate with a restaurant at the airport. She allegedly received a commission for smuggling, he added. Two passengers from Dubai held at Mumbai airport with 21.28 kg smuggled gold worth Rs 19 cr The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has arrested two passengers who arrived at the Mumbai airport from Dubai with 21.288 kg of smuggled gold worth Rs 18.92 crore concealed in customized waist belts, officials said on March 6, reported news agency PTI. The DRI had received specific information about two passengers travelling with smuggled gold from Dubai to Mumbai, an official said. Accordingly, a vigilance was mounted on passengers arriving at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) from Dubai and two of them were intercepted on suspicion, he said, reported PTI. On personal search of the duo, DRI officials recovered foreign-marked gold bars ingeniously concealed inside customized waist belts worn by them beneath their shirts, informed the official. During interrogation, both the passengers admitted to smuggling the gold, which weighed 21.288 kg and was valued at Rs 18.92 crore. A case was registered against the duo under relevant provisions of the Customs Act, and they were placed under arrest, he said, reported PTI. (With inputs from PTI)
16 March,2025 12:51 PM IST | Mumbai | mid-day online correspondentIn a significant relief for the Pydhonie Police, the post-mortem report of a 45-year-old man who died in custody at the Pydhonie police station has determined that the cause of death was “evidence of cellulitis”—an infection that causes acute infection and inflammation of skin. Initially, when the man died, there were concerns over possible custodial torture or negligence that is still being investigated by the Mumbai Crime Branch. According to sources, the Crime Branch obtained the post-mortem report, which ruled out any direct physical assault as the cause of death, therefore reducing the likelihood of it being a custodial death. The incident On the night of February 14, Mumbai Police received a call that a man had allegedly molested a six-year-old girl. A mob had apprehended the accused and assaulted him before police arrived at the scene. The officers took the man to the hospital due to his injuries, where he received first aid and was later discharged. Following medical clearance, the accused was then taken to the Pydhonie police station, where he was formally arrested under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. On February 15, he was presented before a court, which remanded him to police custody until February 17. His custody was later extended to February 20. Medical Complications After the accused complained of uneasiness on February 18, doctors advised the police to admit him to the hospital after examination and recommended surgery for cellulitis. As the man’s condition deteriorated, he was moved to the ICU, where he succumbed to his illness on February 20. The death was classified a custodial death since the man was in police custody at the time prompting standard operating procedure in which the Crime Branch launches an inquiry. According to the crime branch, there were no signs of police-inflicted injuries on the body; the same has been noticed by the medical experts as well. Doctors also verbally informed the police that the accused had also suffered kidney failure. An officer of the crime branch said, “The hospital’s post-mortem report confirmed that ‘Evidence of Cellulitis’ was the primary cause of death”. However, officials await a detailed forensic analysis, including histopathology and viscera reports, for further clarity on the case.
16 March,2025 07:33 AM IST | Mumbai | Faizan KhanThe contact number on a jewellery pouch, found with the severed head of a woman inside a suitcase in the Virar jungle, helped Crime Branch Unit 3 to solve a murder mystery within 24 hours and nab the victim’s husband. Harish Hipparagi, 49, husband of the murdered woman, Utpala alias Soma Das, 51, was arrested from Nalasopara on Friday night. However, the victim’s torso has yet to be found from the drain in Nalasopara East where the killer had decapitated her body using a chopper on January 8. According to the police, Das and Hipparagi got married nearly 25 years ago, and have a 22-year-old son. They were living in a rented flat in Nalasopara East and worked together in making imitation jewellery. The murdered woman and her husband, who has been arrested “Das was a native of Naihati city in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal, while Hipparagi hails from Hubli district in Karnataka. After their love marriage, Das would often go back to her hometown and come back after six or seven months,” inspector Sahuraj Ranaware, in-charge of Unit 3, Crime Branch, Mira Bhayandar Vasai Virar (MBVV) Police told mid-day. “This time too, she had been planning to go to her hometown on January 10. This angered Hipparagi who strangled her to death on January 8 when their son was away at his friend’s place,” Ranaware added. Accidentally left pouch The police said that the “killer husband”, as they are terming him, packed her body inside a gunny bag and took it along with a chopper and an empty suitcase on his scooty to Nalasopara East. “He stopped at a secluded place, dragged the gunny bag to a nearby drain and decapitated the body. Then he concealed the head in the suitcase and dumped the torso in the drain,” said a crime branch officer. “Hipparagi then carried the suitcase on his scooty and dumped it into a thick bush near Virar phata,” Ranaware said. After recovering the highly decomposed skull, the Mandvi police had registered an FIR and the police, led by senior inspector Sanjay Hajare, began to investigate. The crime branch too had started investigatng. The killer’s mistake was to leave behind an empty jewellery pouch in the suitcase, and this helped our teams led by inspector Sahuraj Ranaware and API Suhas Kamble in solving “an absolute blind case”, said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) Avinash Ambure. WB Police steps up A contact number and address on the pouch led the police to outstation customers, of which one number was recently switched off in Nalasopara, said the police. The local police station in Naihati, West Bengal, helped in getting the details of a female customer who would often visit the jewellery shop in her hometown, the police added. Her relatives told the police she was to visit them in January but had been incommunicado for over two months. The police traced the owner of the switched-off phone in Nalasopara, and his friend told them that he had recently purchased a scooter, registered in Vasai RTO. The police found the scooter parked under a building in Nalasopara East, and located his flat with the help of local residents. The accused was arrested from his home on Friday, DCP Ambure told mid-day. He has been handed over to the Mandvi police for further investigation.
16 March,2025 07:11 AM IST | Mumbai | Diwakar SharmaThe Economic Offences Wing (EOW), Mumbai, has arrested Kapil Dedhia, accused in the New India Cooperative Bank misappropriation case. He was apprehended in Vadodara on Friday as part of a coordinated operation and brought to Mumbai where he was formally arrested and presented before the court, which has remanded him to police custody till March 19. This is the fifth arrest in the case. According to the EOW, investigations have revealed that Rs 12 crore was credited to Dedhia’s account, forming part of the misappropriated funds siphoned from the bank. “It has been further established that a portion of this amount was received from Dharmesh Paun, a builder and another arrested accused in the case, while another portion was transferred to him by Unnathan Arunachalam, a wanted accused. Dedhia also received funds from Hitesh Mehta, the former general manager and the main accused in the case,” the EOW said. Further investigation is underway to trace the entire fund flow and identify other individuals involved in the financial irregularities. “The EOW remains committed to ensuring that all those responsible for this fraud are brought to justice,” officials said.
16 March,2025 07:10 AM IST | Mumbai | Faizan KhanA shocking incident took place in which police constable Kashinath Bhanuse, attached to a confidential department of the Bhayandar police station, was attacked with a knife at Shiv Sena Galli on Friday evening. “He sustained serious injuries and is currently undergoing treatment at a private hospital,” said DCP Prakash Gaikwad. According to preliminary information, Bhayandar police received a report of a dispute at Babu Bhai Mistry Chawl in Shiv Sena Galli. “In an attempt to control the situation, police constable Kashinath Bhanuse reached the spot, where two individuals, Babu Nepali and Dilip Bhimbahadur, attacked him with a knife. Bhanuse suffered severe injuries in the assault. He was in civil cloth,” DCP Gaikwad added. Upon learning of the incident, Senior Police Inspector Jitendra Kamble took immediate action and arrested the accused. “Both Dilip Bhimbahadur and Babu Nepali have been taken into custody and charged with serious offences including attempt to murder,” Gaikwad told mid-day. “The reason behind the fierce knife war between both the accused is yet to be ascertained,” he added. The incident has created a tense atmosphere in the area, and the police are conducting further investigations.
15 March,2025 02:51 PM IST | Mumbai | Diwakar SharmaADVERTISEMENT
