The political developments in Maharashtra, caused by the fall of Uddhav Thackeray government and elevation of Eknath Shinde as the Chief Minister, has kept the entire country glued to television for weeks. However, amid the political tussle for Shiv Sena, a new type of fraud has come to fore.
A gang of four people was arrested by the anti-extortion cell for trying to cheat an MLA by asking him to pay Rs 100 crore on the pretext of getting him a ministerial position in the Maharashtra assembly.
Rahul Kul, a BJP MLA from Daund, belled the cat about the offer being made by this gang by filing a complaint. Kul claimed his personal assistant received a call on July 16 from a man who identified himself as Riyaz Shaikh, who allegedly wanted to meet Kul to discuss an offer.
The saffron party legislator, following the call, met Riyaz in a Mumbai hotel where the accused told him that a senior politician would do his work, but he will have to pay Rs 100 crore for it. To make it look like he was interested in Riyaz’s offer, Kul tried to negotiate with him to reduce the amount to Rs 90 crore from Rs 100 crore, to which the accused agreed. Hoowever, 20% of the money was demanded by Riyaz as advance. Kul agreed to pay the amount and asked the accused to come later.
The BJP MLA, not only informed BJP high-command about the issue, but also lodged a complaint with the Marine Drive police station. Vivek Phansalkar, the Mumbai Police Commissioner, was overseeing the matter and handed it to the city crime branch. When the accused and his accomplices went to the hotel to meet the MLA to collect Rs 18 crore in advance, the crime branch had already laid a trap and nabbed the accused.
Riyaz Shaikh, Yogesh Kulkarni, Sagar Sanghvi and Zaffer Usmani were apprehended and brought to the police headquarters for investigation. They will remain in custody till July 26. Three mobile phones have been recovered by the police from accused. Usmani, as per sources in police, appears to be the mastermind of this gang, and was in contact with someone in Delhi. The role of the Delhi-based individual in the case is being investigated by the police.
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