A 32-year-old man has been held for allegedly extorting a woman by threatening her and her mother with an acid attack, in Malad on Monday. Police said the victim had rejected the accused’s advances, which angered him.
According to the Mumbai Police Crime Branch, which is investigating, accused Abhijeet Singh is a Malad resident and is employed as a sales executive with the Andheri branch of a private bank. They said the complainant, aged 30, works at the Kandivali branch of the same bank, and the accused met her during work-related visits to her branch. In January, he proposed to her, but she ignored his advances.
Wounded pride
On January 25, the victim returned home to find a note stuck to her door that gave her 10 days to pay ₹15 lakh, failing which she and her mother would be killed. The threats continued till June 8 via anonymous letters and calls from public booths. Mr. Singh allegedly threatened them with an acid attack, and to upload morphed pictures of the complainant on social media. On Saturday, the victim filed a complaint at Dahisar police station.
The Crime Branch’s Unit XII was tasked with conducting a parallel investigation into the matter, and the team obtained details of calls received by the complainant. They began making rounds of the public telephones Mr. Singh had called from.
Man with an umbrella
An officer who was part of the investigation said, “CCTV footage from the vicinity of the phone booths showed a man with an umbrella using them when the calls to the complainants were made. We learned later he was using the umbrella to hide his face from the cameras. However, he dragged his left leg while walking, and we began looking for someone in the complainant’s friend circle with a similar gait.”
Police obtained details of friends who knew her movements, as Mr. Singh would refer to them during his calls to intimidate her. As most calls were made from Malad, where the accused stays, the police began suspecting him as the perpetrator.
The officer said, “The victim had also recorded some of the calls, and we made a couple of calls to him posing as marketing agents offering loans and other products. Although he would change his voice while calling the complainant, we found similarities. We were also tracking his movements using technical and human intelligence, which were in accordance with the calls.”
Mr. Singh was picked up from near his residence for inquiries on Monday morning. Police said he denied having anything to do with the offence, but broke down and confessed when he was confronted with the evidence during interrogation.
He was handed over to Dahisar police station, where the case was registered. Police said the accused has been charged with extortion, criminal intimidation and sexual harassment under the Indian Penal Code. He will be produced in the Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court in Borivali on Tuesday.
