Man who posed as CBI officer to extort held in Mumbai

MUMBAI: A 34-year-old businessman has been arrested by the city crime branch for allegedly impersonating as an IPS officer working with the CBI and threatening a businessman to pay Rs 70 lakh to avoid arrest for an 'illegal transaction' during demonetisation.
The Crime Intelligence Unit (CIU) of Mumbai police arrested Santosh Misal alias Sandeepkumar Meena for threat and extortion and sent him to police custody.The accused is a Navi Mumbai resident, said the police.
The complainant, Harisingh Rao, is a jeweller who supplies gold across the country. During a business trip he met Mohanlal Gupta and his brother Kailash, jewellers from Hyderabad.
"They had became friends. However in 2016 the Enforcement Directorate arrested Kailash's two sons in connection with demonetisation of currency notes. Gupta brothers had shared this information with Rao who in turn claimed he knows someone who could help them get bail," said deputy commissioner of police (crime branch) Shaji Umap.
When Rao visited Hyderabad, Gupta told him that the man who could demanded huge money but they handed him 5kg of gold as they had no cash.
A few months later, Gupta called up Rao to say that the "work was not done" and demanded the gold back. Rao told them that they should handle this on their own as it was their decision to hand over the gold." said senior inspector Vinay Ghorpude of CIU.
Meanwhile Rao recently started receiving calls from the arrested accused who posed as an IPS officer with the CBI and threatened to book Rao. Accused told Rao that he has learnt that about the 5kg gold and threatened to arrest him or demanded Rs 70 lakh to evade arrest. Rao approached the crime branch.
The police laid a trap at a hotel in south Mumbai and arrested SandeepKumar Meena.