Extortion accused Ashwin Naik, who was arrested along with three others by the Dadar police on Sunday, had taken ample precautions to try and identify whether he was being lured into a trap, police officers said on Monday.
Naik was arrested at Dadar after he allegedly accepted a bag filled with cash from a Dadar-based builder on Sunday. His three aides, Pramod Keluskar, Janardan Sakpal and Rajesh Tambe, were also arrested along with him, while two to three others are still wanted in the case.
“Naik suspected he was being led into a trap. When he reached Dadar, he told the complainant to leave the bag of money in his car and take a ride with him first. For the next half an hour, his driver drove him and the complainant in circles around the area. Interrogation of the arrested accused has also revealed that at the same time, two to three of his people were roaming in the area around the complainant’s car, trying to identify anyone who might be a policeman,” said a police officer.
When Naik was finally convinced that there was no trap, he instructed his driver to stop near the complainant’s car. The complainant then got the bag, which was filled with bundles of paper with currency notes placed on top, and handed it over to Naik. Plainclothes policemen, who had managed to avoid being identified by Naik’s scouts, then arrested Naik.
Ashwin Naik took the complainant on a car ride before accepting the bribe money
