Mumbai cop extorts Rs 1.4 lakh from paanwala

Mumbai: An official from the Mumbai Police force's Crime Branch wing was arrested by the Goregaon police on charges of extorting money from paan shop owners in Goregaon West. According to the police, on July 5, the accused, identified as PI Bhaskar Dheere, had visited the complainant Shafique Shaikh's shop in the Jawahar Nagar locality of Goregaon. He accused Shaikh of selling fake gutka brands and threatened him, saying that he would book him so that he spends five years behind bars.

Dheere then demanded money from Shaikh. In his complaint, Shaikh told police that he had Rs 1.40 lakh in his drawer, which the cop took from him by force and then left the spot in his police vehicle. "After filing a complaint with us, Shaikh, who is a committee member of paan shop owners association in the area, alerted all the shop owners and asked them to alert him in turn if the extortionist approached them to demand money." said Police Inspector Sambhaji Patil of the Goregaon police station.

Relating the event that led to the cop's arrested, "On July 9, Shaikh received a call from a paan shop owner in Malad who told him that a police officer had extorted Rs 20,000 from him, and bullied him just the way Shaikh was bullied."

Cops chase cop

Shaikh asked the victim to wait while he set off to chase the vehicle. Meanwhile, he also alerted beat marshals near Dindoshi police station who intercepted Dheere's vehicle. When the marshals saw that it was Dheere they were trailing, they saluted him. When Shaikh insisted that it was Dheere who he had complained against, the marshals asked Dheere to take the vehicle to Dindoshi station.

At the station, officials said that the complaint was with the Goregaon police station so Dheere was taken there and arrested. Shaikh's complaint was against four people, including Dheere, and police are yet to find the other three, also suspected to be CB policemen.

Dheere was produced in court on Sunday and remanded to police custody till July 13. Police will interrogate Dheere to know the details of his accomplices.

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