Six men held for posing as government officers in Mumbai

MUMBAI: Six men who barged into an

imitation jewellery workshop

pretending to be government officers and extorted a sum of Rs 1.5 lakh from the owner were arrested within 24 hours. Police will now verify if the group has been similarly targeting other establishments as well.

On Tuesday,

Hakaram Devasi

, 39, was at his imitation jewellery workshop at

Appapada

in

Malad East

. Six men trooped in and said they were government servants carrying out checks. They told Devasi that his workshop was being run illegally, that the acid being stored was unauthorised, child labourers had been employed against the law and nobody was wearing masks. They threatened to take major action. Then to settle the matter, they demanded a sum of Rs 1.5 lakh. A frightened Devasi paid up. But later, he approached the Kurar police station and lodged a complaint as something hadnt seemed right.

Police made inquiries in the neighbourhood and acting on specific information, officers picked up all six accused on Wednesday from a bar in Virar where they had been drinking. Four of the accused are residents of the Virar-Nala Sopara belt. They were identified as Mahendra Jadhav, 42, Nikhil Jadhav, 34, Swapnil Patil, 34, Tushar Takalkar, 30,

Jeevansingh Ravat

, 31 and Bhushan Melekar, 32. All have been booked on extortion charges.