Man arrested for trying to extort Rs 10 crore from builder

A real estate agent was arrested by the Mumbai Police's Crime Branch for allegedly posing as a gangster and trying to extort Rs 10 crore from a builder, police said today.

Dharmendra Raghu Khandagale (52), a resident of Mira Road in neighbouring Thane district, was arrested yesterday by Unit 8 of Crime Branch after the builder, who was developing a site in the western Mumbai suburb of Santacruz, filed a complaint, a senior official said.

The official informed that the complainant was embroiled in a dispute with another builder over the development project and the accused, Khandagale, was acting as a mediator to solve the issue.

"Between December last year and February 2018, the complainant started getting threat calls from an international number. The caller, who claimed to be a gangster, was asking the complainant to pay Rs 10 crore to the builder with whom he was having a dispute," the official said.

The builder receiving the calls then approached Vakola police station which registered a case, he said.

"Investigations revealed that the calls were being made via internet and were made to look like they were coming from an international number. The voice was identified as that of Khandagale," the official said.

He was arrested yesterday and further investigations into the crime were underway, the official said.