Man cons vendor of Rs 45 lakh, lands behind bars

The property cell of the Mumbai crime branch has arrested a 36-year-old man for conning a sugarcane vendor and extorting Rs 45 lakh from him over two months. According to the crime branch officer, the accused, Rahul Sarate, a resident of Chembur, threatened to have the businessman put behind bars for serving contaminated juice and made him pay Rs 45 lakh.

The complainant owns a chain of sugarcane centres with outlets at Ghatkopar, Chembur and Sion. Sarate was a regular customer of the shop and he got the owner’s number from the internet and called him, pretending to be an official from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

He claimed that the daughter of Navy officer was hospitalised after drinking sugarcane juice from one of the businessman’s shops and collected Rs 26,400 for her treatment.

Some days after, Sarate once again called the complainant and said a complaint had been registered with the police as well as with the Navy and in court. He reportedly sent emails using different IDs and threatened that the business owner would be arrested and his shop would be seized if he did not pay Rs 4 lakh immediately. Fearing arrest, the complainant paid the amount demanded. However, Sarate’s demands continued.

According to the crime branch officer, Sarate impersonated officials of various departments and called regularly called the complainant using different names. Interestingly, the ‘official’ of every department told the complainant only Sarate could help him out. Thus, Sarate kept up his extortion.

After having paid Sarate Rs 45 lakh, the complainant finally realised something was amiss and approached the Mumbai crime branch. After initial verification, an offence was registered with Ghatkopar police station and Sarate was arrested for cheating and hatching a conspiracy.

According to the crime branch officer, Sarate, having received training in the merchant navy for nine months, was aware of designations in that line of work.