Case against local goon, 3 associates for bid to extort money from Thane bizman

Thane: Police have registered a case against a local goon and three of his associates for allegedly threatening a 25-year-old businessman and attempting to extort money from him in Maharashtra's Thane district, an official said on Sunday.

The goon had approached the victim, who is into fabrication work, at his workplace in Kalwa area here and demanded Rs 50,000 as "protection money" per month, the official from Kalwa police station said.

To intimidate the businessman, the accused said he was recently released from jail in a criminal case and even children in Kalwa area knew about him, as per the FIR.

On June 27, the accused and his associates again confronted the victim near a political party office in Kalwa, reiterating their demand and threatening him with dire consequences if he failed to fulfil it, it said.

The victim approached the police with a complaint, based on which the FIR was registered on Friday against four persons under Indian Penal Code sections 385 (putting person in fear of injury in order to commit extortion), 387 (putting person in fear of death or of grievous hurt in order to commit extortion) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention).

A probe was on into the case, the police added.