Fifth arrest in Ponzi promoter extortion case

Mumbai:

City crime branch

unit 10 on Sunday made the fifth arrest in connection with the kidnapping and Rs 50-lakh exto-rtion from an alleged Ponzi scheme promoter in November 2019. The accused, Mahendra Upadhaya, was picked up from his village in Uttar Pradesh. “We have already filed a chargesheet in the kidnap-extortion case. Now, we will file a supplementary chargesheet against Upadhaya,” said inspector Vinay Ghorpude.

In his complaint with

Andheri police

, Omprakash Goenka, chairman and director of Citrus Check-Inns and Royal Twinkle Star Club, claimed that Kishore Adhav, Vijay Jadhav, Nilesh Gurav, Ajay Jadhav and Upadhaya had kidnapped him at gunpoint and released him only after he agreed to pay Rs 50 lakh to Adhav. Incidentally, Goenka was arrested in 2018 by the EOW for allegedly

defrauding 18 lakh

investors, including Adhav, of Rs 4,500 crore. —S Ahmed Ali