Man wanted in extortion case held after 7 yrs

MUMBAI: The Mumbai crime branch arrested a 34-year-old man from Jogeshwari on Saturday, who was wanted in an extortion case since 2011. Police said that while the accused’s associates were arrested in 2011, the former had evaded arrest by fleeing to Uttar Pradesh (UP) and living at his relative’s place after changing his name.

The accused has been identified as Dinesh Dayaram Yadav. Yadav, along with his associates, used to run a local Hindi newspaper, police said. The complainant ran a ration shop in Goregaon area. Yadav and his associates approached the complainant in December 2010 claiming he was selling illegal kerosene. They demanded ₹1 lakh from the complainant if he did not want himself ‘exposed’ in their newspaper.

“The victim paid ₹75,000 in instalments from December 2010 to May 2011 but the suspects did not stop there and threatened to expose the complainant if he did not pay them ₹4,000 monthly,” said a crime branch official.

The victim approached the Goregaon police and a case of extortion was registered against Yadav and his associates. While police managed to arrest Yadav’s associates, Yadav himself managed to flee to UP, police said.

However, Yadav was arrested on Saturday at Ramdev Mishra chawl, Jogeshwari (West). He was arrested by officials of unit 9 of the crime branch following a tip-off. He was later handed over to the Goregaon police station.