Mumbai man held for extortion bid on former Guj BJP minister

A 25-year-old man was today arrested for trying to extort money from former Gujarat minister Jayanti Kavadia by posing as an associate of gangster Ravi Pujari, police said.

Ashishkumar Sharma, who told police that he was an assistant director in the film industry, was arrested from Mumbai in a joint effort by the Morbi police, the Ahmedabad police's Crime Branch and Mumbai police's Anti-Extortion Cell, said a senior official.

"On May 16, former minister Kavadia got a call from Sharma, who after identifying himself as gangster Ravi Pujari's henchman, demanded Rs 5 lakh from him," said Akshayraj Makwana, Superintendent of Police, Morbi.

"After receiving a complaint from the former minister, a team was formed and, with the help of Ahmedabad and Mumbai police, Sharma was nabbed within a few hours," Makwana said.

He said that investigations so far had revealed that Sharma had tried this modus operandi with five to six personalities from the Hindi film industry.

Sharma, the official said, has stated that he called Kavadia because he was in dire need of money.

Kavadia was the Panchayat and Rural Development minister in the previous Gujarat government. He had, however, not contested the 2017 Assembly polls.