Politician booked for extorting money from corporator

A local politician has been booked for allegedly blackmailing a Vasai-Virar corporator and extorting money from him, the police said Friday.

Interestingly, the corporator, Arun Jadhav, himself has been arrested on charges of carrying out illegal construction and land grabbing in Vasai town of Palghar district located adjoining Mumbai.

The accused, Kumar Harishchandra Kakade, who is at large, has been booked under IPC sections 384 (punishment for extortion) and 385 (putting a person in fear of injury in order to commit extortion), Palghar district rural police PRO Hemant Katkar said.

Jadhav, a Bahujan Vikas Aghadi (BVA) corporator of the Vasai-Virar Municipal Corporation (VVMC), had filed a complaint against Kakade a few days ago, accusing him of blackmail and extortion.

The police, citing the complaint, said Kakade blackmailed Jadhav from time to time by filing applications under the RTI with the VVMC, seeking information about construction activities in Vasai.

Jadhav is himself into the construction business.

Since 2016, Kakade has been threatening Jadhav by telling him that he would create hurdles in his realty business and lodge complaints in courts for alleged illegal construction activities, they said.

The Vasai-based politician, who belongs to a prominent opposition party, had asked the corporator to pay him Rs 50 lakh to avoid harassment, the police said.

The accused collected Rs 30 lakh from Jadhav on two occasions in 2016, the complaint stated.

Meanwhile, Jadhav was arrested by the Vasai police a couple of days ago on charges of carrying out illegal construction and land grabbing.