The Turbhe MIDC police have registered a case of extortion against gangster Suresh Pujari for threatening to kill the managing director of a five-star hotel in Mahape MIDC if he did not pay up ₹1 crore.
The police said the managing director of the hotel received a call from an international number on February 10, but he did not answer it. Later, the chairman got a call from the number and he responded. The caller introduced himself as Pujari and said he was calling from Australia. The caller then told the chairman that the managing director would be shot dead in the hotel if he continued to ignore the gangster’s calls.
The police said the chairman and the managing director received several calls from numbers in Australia, Tunisia, Thailand, Argentina, Russia, and Panama the same day. However, neither of them responded to these calls. Around 5 p.m. on February 11, Pujari sent a text message from Costa Rica to the chairman. The message said that the managing director would be killed if the hotel did not arrange ₹1 crore for the gangster.
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The chairman then approached the Turbhe MIDC police and filed a complaint against Pujari under Sections 387 (putting person in fear of death or of grievous hurt in order to commit extortion) and 507 (criminal intimidation by anonymous communication) of the Indian Penal Code. “We are verifying from where the calls were made,” a police officer said.