Mumbai: 2 held for extortion after posing as Crime Branch cops

Two persons were arrested on Tuesday for allegedly extorting money from the driver of a Kandivali-based cloth merchant after posing as Crime Branch personnel, a Mumbai police official said.

The driver told Borivali police that some personnel from Crime Branch's Unit XII demanding money from him after taking away the cloth merchant's car, an official said.

"He said they demanded Rs 1.5 lakh in cash and a signed cheque. Our probe zeroed in on Pankaj Gupta and Kiran Alagan, residents of Posar in Kandivali, who were trying to extort money by posing as Crime Branch officials," he said.

"The driver gave Rs 1.5 lakh to Gupta out of fear. But he soon started receiving more calls from another person who said he was from the Crime Branch. The driver then told the cloth merchant after which the police complaint was filed," he said.