FOUR OFFICERS FROM CUSTOMS DEPT BOOKED FOR EXTORTION

NAVI MUMBAI: The NRI police on Wednesday booked four customs officers for allegedly trying to extort ₹10 lakh from a shop owner in Seawoods. The accused are yet to be arrested.

According to the police, the officers visited a shop, which sells cosmetics, at sector 44 on October 5 and demanded ₹10 lakh. They threatened to arrest the salesmen if the owner did not pay the amount.

“The accused had visited the shop around 7.30pm and introduced themselves as customs officers from the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) at Nhava Sheva. They told the two salesmen that they had a search warrant to conduct a raid and thus stopped them from stepping out of the premises,” said a police officer from NRI police station. “The shop owner was not present during the incident. One of the accused asked the salesmen to call him and threatened to arrest them if they did not act accordingly. They finally left the shop saying that the owner would have to pay ₹10 lakh if he wanted to get rid of the ‘trouble’,” the officer said.

The shop owner then approached the Vashi court and on Wednesday, the court directed the police to register a case against the accused.

A first information report (FIR) under sections 342 (punishment for wrongful confinement), 365 (kidnapping or abducting with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine person), 384 (punishment for extortion), 389 (putting person in fear of accusation of offence, in order to commit extortion), 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) has been registered.

Smita Jadhav, senior inspector of NRI police station, said, “We have verified the information. The accused are genuine customs officers. However, it is not clear why they visited the shop and demanded money. Further investigations are on.”

Despite repeated attempts, the accused customs officials remained unavailable for comments.