2 cops, 5 from Khar company booked for extortion, cyber offences in Mumbai

Mumbai: Two sub-inspectors and five others, including the owners of Khar-based Sparsh Liaison Services, were booked for extortion and cyber offences on Thursday after the Bombay high court raised questions about the Khar police probe into a complaint by two former employees of the company.The employees, Subhojit Day (27) and Shashank Pawar (29), had moved the HC alleging two cops, Laxman Kakade and Manisha Chougule, attached with the Khar police station in 2024, helped the owner of the firm extort money from Day and also filed an FIR against him in a case of data theft. Based on the HC directives, both policemen had been already suspended.On Thursday, Khar police registered the case against Kakade, Chougule and five others—Indrajit Singh, Chanchal Singh, Rashika Bhiravadkar, Sachin Kesarkar, and Mayur Karpekar. DCP (Zone IX) Dikshit Gedam said necessary action will be initiated against all who all are involved in the offence.The problem allegedly began for Day after he resigned from the company and was on notice period. Day complained that his seniors and employers with the help of cops targeted him after learning he was planning to set up his own firm that could become Sparsh's competitor. Pawar too had plans to quit.In the complaint, Day said: "On July 16, 2024, senior manager Rasika Bhirwatkar arrived at the company premises and demanded that Shashank Pawar and I hand over our personal mobile phones and the mobile phones issued to us by the company. We refused to surrender our personal phones. Bhirwatkar then began to verbally abuse us and called the company owner, Indrajit Singh, and put her phone on the loudspeaker. Singh verbally abused us and threatened that if I did not hand over my personal phone, I would face the consequences."Day's lawyer Bhagyesha Kurane said the cops had incorrectly stated "the petitioners willingly handed over their phones". The complaint said the cops seized their phones and got Rs 1 lakh transferred into the accounts of Indrajit and Chanchal. "We were framed and the cops and our employer (Indrajit) said we had taken a loan of Rs 10 lakh from our employer and asked us to bring the amount to the police station. I was threatened that if I did not do so, they would harm my family and I would be falsely implicated in a case," said Day in the FIR. "The extortion was executed inside the police station by the two cops on behalf of Singh who owns the firm where Day was employed," Kurane said. HC directed a report be submitted after 4 weeks. It directed Khar police to hand over the phones to Juhu police in the petitioners' presence.
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