Investigations in a case of extortion and impersonation have revealed that the accused used to threaten people with FIRs and RTIs to extort money.
Chandrakant Kamble (35), was arrested by Nerul police in April after he and his wife had extorted money from a bakery owner. Further investigations have revealed that Mr. Kamble was a habitual extortionist.
The police said Mr. Kamble was a known person in his community who used to get involved in any issue that he was made aware of and ensure that a police complaint was filed. Once an FIR was registered, he used to meet the accused in the case and threaten them to pay a settlement amount, after receiving which he would make the complainant take back the case.
On April 15, Mr. Kamble’s wife, Sarita, had gone to a bakery in Sector 18, Nerul where she picked up a product, consumed it and later bought another item. “When the lady paid for the second item, the shopkeeper said that she had not paid for the first. The woman then quarrelled with him claiming she did and left the shop. Later, Mr. Kamble entered the bakery, claiming to be a policeman, and threatened the shopkeeper, Pradeep Gowda, with a case for insulting a lady. He demanded ₹10,000 to avoid the case but the shopkeeper gave him ₹5,000 saying that he was just an employee and didn’t have any more money,” the officer added. Few days later, Mr. Gowda saw Mr. Kamble beating a man on the road claiming that he had touched someone inappropriately. “Mr. Gowda asked a person in the crowd if Mr. Kamble was a very dangerous cop. The person told him Mr. Kamble was not a cop and that’s when he realised he had been cheated and registered a case on April 20,” an officer said.
Another case wherein Mr. Kamble used his wife’s phone to indulge in obscene chatting with an assistant police officer and later approached police station making his wife the complainant in the case was uncovered during investigations. “Later it was revealed that he was trying to extort ₹15 lakh from the API’s wife in order to take back the case. Thats when we learnt that it was his regular business to earn money via extortion,” the officer added.
The police believe that he has also extorted money from people after filing RTIs. “Mr. Kamble used to regularly file RTIs. We believe it was for the purpose of extortion itself. We want people to come forward and let us know if they were ever approached by Mr. Kamble for money so that the charge sheet that we file can be strong enough to convict him,” the officer said.
The Nerul police has received three complaints against Mr. Kamble for impersonation and trying to extort money. One of the complainants, a lady from Sector 18 in Nerul said Mr. Kamble demanded ₹1.5 lakh from her, claiming that his daughter had fallen sick after having the cake she baked. An FDA test found everything to be fine with her cakes and the doctor from the hospital said the child did not have food poisoning.
“While his wife is out on bail, Mr. Kamble is in Taloja jail. We would want people to approach us and let us know if Mr. Kamble had ever extorted or tried to extort money from them,” Nerul senior inspector Rajendra Chavan said.
