Three with 'links' to Chhota Shakeel held for bid to extort Rs 50 lakh from Mumbai businessman

Mumbai police on Wednesday arrested three persons from Surat in Gujarat for allegedly trying to extort Rs 50 lakh from a businessman here and threatening him by citing their links with gangster Chhota Shakeel, an official said. The complainant in the case said he had given Rs 13 crore to one of the accused, but instead of repaying the money to him, the latter along with his two accomplices threatened him and tried to extort money, the police said.

The Anti Extortion Cell (AEC) of Mumbai crime branch arrested the trio, identified as Aslam Naviwala (63), Ilyas Kapadia (42) and Mirza Arif Beig (52), the official said, adding that Naviwala's son Ehtesham was wanted in the case.

The 45-year-old businessman said in his complaint that he had given Rs 13 crore to Naviwala for his business after raising the amount from different people, he said.

''Later, whenever he demanded his money back from Naviwala, the latter refused to repay it. Naviwala, along with Kapadia and Mirza, used to threaten him by using gangster Chota Shakeel's name. Once the businessman also got a call from an international number, in which the caller asked him to stop demanding his money back from Naviwala,'' the police official said. Instead, the trio kept demanding Rs 50 lakh from the complainant citing their alleged links with Chota Shakeel, he said, adding that Kapadia and Beig have a criminal background and had links with the 'D Company', the crime syndicate operated by fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim.

The accused were arrested under relevant sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC), including 387 (extortion). They were produced before a court, which remanded him in police custody till August 3. Further investigation is underway, he said.