Three held for bid to extort Rs 25 lakh from film producer

A small-time film director was among the three persons arrested by crime branch officials here for allegedly trying to extort Rs 25 lakh from a film producer in Gorai, police said Tuesday.

The director had earlier worked with the producer, an official said, adding that the extortion bid was a fallout of a financial dispute between the two.

The accused are identified as Rohan Redekar (27), Shashank Suman Verma (33), who claims to be a film director, and Bhupeshkumar Prasad (36), all residents of suburban Malad.

The trio were allegedly making threat calls using the name of an underworld gang to make the film producer cough up Rs 25 lakh, since the first week of May, the official said.

As the accused threatened to harm his family members, the producer lodged a complaint at Bangurnagar police station.

During investigation, the crime branch found out that the callers were using Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) to threaten the producer, he said.

After analysing the calls, the officials of unit-11 of the crime branch got information about one of the trio and laid a trap in Goarai area Monday night, the official added.

Police detained one accused who led them to two others.

Police have recovered a mobile phone handset from the accused, he said.