Pune: Realtor held for bid to extort Rs 80 lakh from man

PUNE: The city crime branch arrested a real estate agent and his three friends on the charge of attempt to extort Rs80 lakh from a Kharadi-based IT company owner after threatening to implicate him in a false case of firing two rounds at him in Bopdeo ghat around 1.15am on November 26.

The agent, Asif Khan (33), is a criminal on record and had lodged a complaint with the Kondhwa police claiming one of the two men opened fire at them and fled. "We doubted Khan's claim as no empty rounds or gunpowder were found on the spot. The CCTV footage showed no assailants," said senior inspector Hemant Patil from crime branch (unit V).

Patil said, "We took Fariyas Pathan, Sameer Shaikh and Shahbaz Khan into custody. After Khan was taken into custody, he told police that he and his friends plotted the firing alibi to mislead the Kondhwa police by lodging a false complaint."