JOIN USFraudster Sam Peter had come to Mangaluru for ‘amicable settlement’ of two cases, including that of smuggler Dubai Sherief.
Mangaluru Commissioner of Police Dr P S Harsha told reporters at his office on Saturday that the Customs officers had booked a case after seizing gold from Sherief at Bengaluru airport. When Sherief informed advocate Muzafar Ahmmed, the latter introduced him to Girish Rai and Imthiyaz, who promised to prevent Customs from registering any case.
Both Rai and Imthiyaz had collected Rs 1.7 crore from Sherief to prevent registration of a case, but when a case was registered, Sherief began to demand money from Muzafar. In turn, Muzafar sent Sam Peter and his accomplice to kidnap Rai and Imthiyaz to retrieve the money they had collected from Sherief.
Abetting extortion
Muzafar had also introduced Peter to Lathif and G Mohiddin alias Cheriyan to help in extortion. Accordingly, Lathif and Cheriyan arranged for Peter to stay in Mangaluru and plotted to extort money from Girish Rai and Imthiyaz.
Harsha said that Muzafar too would be subjected to interrogation by the police shortly.
In addition, Peter had promised to settle civil issues of a Mutt through Ramachandra Nayak of Udupi by threatening the opponents of the Mutt, said Dr Harsha. Following the arrest of Lathif and Cheriyan, the investigating officers used a search warrant issued by the court and searched the houses of the duo. A sword was found in the house of Cheriyan and a case under the Arms Act was registered at Kavoor police station.
Peter had never purchased SIM card in his name. To sound genuine, he had saved his own number as ‘ACP Bengaluru’, and would send messages to the number.
With well-organised activities, he had got a fake news anchor in his team, to create scenes of news coverage. Peter also kept such videos in his mobile phone. Calling himself an NCIB director, Peter had taken photographs with renowned people, the commissioner added.
14 major cases across country
Sam Peter, who was arrested with seven accomplices by Mangaluru City Police on August 16, was wanted by police in various parts of the country for the last 22 years.
The Interpol had issued a Red Corner notice against him in 1998, Commissioner of Police Dr P S Harsha told reporters. The court had remanded him in police custody for nine days, to extract other details on his activities.The CBI and the Interpol officials too had visited Mangaluru to collect more information about Sam Peter.
Police personnel from Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Chattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu have been requesting permission from court to take Peter for investigation of 14 cases at their respective states.
The city police arrested Peter and his accomplices when they were posing as sleuths of the National Crime Investigation Bureau (NCIB) and were hatching a conspiracy to extort money in Pumpwell.