Man held for demanding extortion from slum-dweller

A political party activist was arrested here for allegedly trying to extort Rs 8 lakh from a slum dweller, police said today.
Inderpal Singh Arora (35), a resident of Sion Koliwada, was arrested last night following a complaint of Kashinath Adak (44), who accused him of trying to extort Rs 8 lakh from him to declare both his huts as 'legal', police said.
The slums of Sion-Koliwada are set to go in for a rehabilitation under the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) scheme, where every family, that has a hut in its name will be provided with a house, they said.

"The complainant possesses two huts in the area, for which he should be getting two houses under the SRA scheme. Inderpal threatened to declare one of his huts as illegal, if he failed to cough up the amount," police sub-inspector Rajendra Tikekar said.
The victim tried to plead with the accused saying he was a very poor man and was thus unable to pay such a huge amount, Tikekar said, adding but when he was persistently threatened and later, approached the police.
Subsequently, the police registered a case against the accused under IPC Section 384 (punishment for extortion), Section 385 (putting a person in fear of injury in order to commit extortion) and 34 (act done by several persons in furtherance of common intention).

Arora was produced before a local court today, and is currently lodged in Arthur Road jail.