Mumbai: Lakdawala, police informer Maharaj held for extortion

MUMBAI: The City Crime Branch on Thursday arrested gangster Ejaz Lakdawala and police informer Salim Penwala alias Maharaj in an alleged threatening and extortion case.
The Anti Extortion Cell of the Mumbai Police took the custody of Lakdawala and Maharaj from the Arthur Road jail where they have been lodged since 2020 under the stringent MCOCA. While Lakdawala was arrested from Bihar, Maharaj and another gangster, Tariq Parveen, were arrested for their nexus with Lakdawala.
The fresh arrest pertains to the complaint lodged by businessman Abbas Ratanshi, one of the partners in Foxlight India Private Limited, which supplies equipment and accessories for Bollywood film shootings. Ratanshi has a 33% stake in Foxlight and has been locked in a dispute with his partners in the company for some time.
According to police, in June 2019, gangster Chhota Shakeel aide Riyaz Bhati summoned Ratanshi to his office in Juhu and threatened him to quit the company in exchange for Rs 5 crore. Ratanshi did not agree. Within a few days, Ratanshi received a call from an unknown international number. The caller, who claimed to be Lakdawala, threatened the complainant with dire consequences and said that if he wanted his business to run smoothly, he should cough up Rs 5 crore as ‘good luck’ or he would be killed, police said.
“The complainant got scared and he first went to Bandra and later to Khar police station to lodge a complaint against Lakdawala. But within a few hours, Lakdawala called him up and yelled at him, asking why he approached the police,” said a police officer.