Three people, including father-son duo from Haryana, have been arrested for allegedly running an interstate gang involved in extorting money from those who gave them orders to transport their vehicles. The trio was identified as main suspects as Hanuman Bhardwaj, 45, and his son Pankaj, 22, and Imran Pathan, 34, from Mumbra in Thane.
Details of case
According to the Oshiwara police, the accused had set up a fake website offering service to transport vehicles. To trap people, they kept the fees extremely low. When someone contacted them on the numbers posted on the website, a woman used to answer the calls. Next, a local person was sent to pick up the vehicle. To make the con look genuine, they even used to send video of the car being loaded into a truck, but it was taken elsewhere in reality.
Once the trio got the automobile's possession, they started to extort money from the target on various pretexts ranging from toll charges, GST to transit insurance, check post charges, etc. If the aggrieved refused to pay extra, the accused threatened to damage the vehicle.
Under the guidance of senior Inspector Mohan Patil, Assistant Police Inspector Deplepak Barve and his team caught Pathan on February 19 from Taloja. His arrest led to the whereabouts of Hanuman and Pankaj, who were apprehended on March 1 and 2, respectively.
