Three held for extorting money under pretext of transporting vehicles

Mumbai Police busted a gang allegedly involved in extorting money under the pretext of transporting vehicles and arrested three persons, an official said on Sunday. He was loading and unloading a stolen car when police raided the spot, the official said.

Mumbai Police busted a gang allegedly involved in extorting money under the pretext of transporting vehicles and arrested three persons, an official said on Sunday. The arrested trio allegedly operated a fake transport company and a website, he said. Police have recovered a stolen car from one of the accused in Navi Mumbai while the gang leader was arrested from Haryana. Explaining the modus operandi, the official said the trio used to pick up the car for delivery from the place of the customer and share a video of it being loaded in a container truck. However, they would never ship the car and unload it immediately. ''They used to send fake locations about the car in transit to the customer. They would tell the customer that his car is nearing the destination and would demand extra money under the pretext of paying the toll, GST, transit insurance, checkpost charges etc,'' the official said. The accused used to threaten the customer saying his car would be dumped midway or damaged if money was not paid, he said.

The gang was exposed after a businessman approached the police and an FIR was registered.

''Police tracked one of the accused Pankaj Bhardwaj (22) to Taloja in Navi Mumbai based on the location of a mobile phone number. He was loading and unloading a stolen car when police raided the spot,'' the official said. Subsequently, another accused, identified as Imran Abdul Gani Pathan, was also arrested on Saturday. Based on the details shared by the arrested duo, the gang leader, identified as Hanuman Bhardwaj, was nabbed from Haryana, the official said, adding that the police have registered a case on charges of cheating, conspiracy, extortion and other sections of the Indian Penal Code.

The trio was produced before a court which remanded them in police custody, the official added.