Maharashtra: Woman held for threatening man, extorting money in Thane

A woman was arrested from Bhayander in Maharashtra`s Thane district for allegedly cheating and extorting money from a man by threatening to frame him in false cases, police said on Saturday, reported the PTI.

The suspect allegedly targeted a 36-year-old shopkeeper whom she got acquainted with in 2021, the police said.

The victim is a married man and Adate insisted that he marry her, he said.

Based on a complaint, the police on Thursday arrested Sandhya Gajanan Adate, 27, under sections 384 (extortion), 420 (cheating), 406 (criminal breach of trust), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace ) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code, deputy commissioner zone-I Bhayander Prakash Gaikwad said, according to the PTI.

Adate underwent a religious conversion to marry him and when he refused to register the marriage as his divorce matter was not settled, she started blackmailing him and threatened to register false cases against him, the official said, as per the PTI.

The accused allegedly demanded Rs 30 lakh from the man initially, and he paid her Rs 5 lakh, he said.

The victim approached the police with a complaint on May 1, the official said, adding that a probe is on to find out if the woman was a habitual offender involved in such cases in the past, the news agency reported.

MNS leader booked by Mumbai Police for extortion on gold trader`s complaint

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) leader Avinash Jadhav and one more person were booked by the Mumbai Police for allegedly threatening a gold trader from Mumbai`s Zaveri Bazar and seeking extortion of Rs 5 crore, a police official said on Friday, reported the PTI.

According to the PTI, as per the 55-year-old complainant, the incident took place on Wednesday in his Zaveri Bazar office in south Mumbai, the official added.

“The complainant has said he had a business deal with one Vaibhav Thakkar, whom he had called to his office to sort out some financial issues. Thakkar came along with MNS leader Jadhav, his driver and six others,” the official said, as per the PTI.

“Jadhav and his aide allegedly beat up the complainant`s son in front of police personnel. The complainant also alleged Jadhav threatened him for recovery of Rs 5 crore,” the official added, the news agency reported on Friday.

On the complaint of the gold trader, Jadhav and one more person were booked under Indian Penal Code sections for extortion etc and further probe was underway, the Lokmanya Tilak (LT) Marg police station official said, as per the PTI.

(with PTI inputs)