THE MUMBAI police busted a gang that was involved in extorting money from workshop owners in Dharavi claiming they were employing children for work and extorting them. While one person has been arrested, the police are on the lookout for three other accused who are currently on the run.
An officer said that on October 30, around 1.30pm, the complainant was working at his factory where he and his brother’s children were playing with him. Two women, Deepali Dalvi and Megha Sonawane, pretended to be BMC employees and took photographs of the children playing in the factory.
They threatened to take action against the complainant after which they took a ransom of Rs 25,000 from the scared complainant and left. The complainant came to know that the accused had collected ransom from several other workshops in the area on similar grounds.
When the accused came to his factory again on Monday and asked for a ransom, the accused alerted others and they asked the accused to show their BMC identity card. This time around she was accompanied by a person identified as Hanumanta Kunchikarve (36) who claimed to be a police officer. When the complainant refused to pay ransom, the accused threatened to file a case of child labour against them.
The locals then called up the police and were waiting when Deepali managed to flee from the spot. The locals overpowered Kunchikarve and handed him over to the police. Based on his questioning, the police registered an FIR against him and three others who were involved in the extortion attempt earlier. An officer said that they are on the lookout for the other accused.
