Newskarnataka – Mangalore
Mangalore: A man from Bunder allegedly made extortion calls to a businessman and threaten in the name of underworld don Ravi Poojary. The Bunder police arrested him on Sunday December 1.
As per the initial reports, the accused identified as 32-year-old, Samshuddin a resident of Akkarakere, Ullal has been arrested whereas his accompanist, identified as Fayaz of Bibi Alabi road at Bunder is still absconding.
Reportedly Samshuddin, claiming himself to be Ravi Poojary’s aide, had called 41-year-old Bharat Bhai a businessman, who runs a hardware shop named “Mataji” at Bibi Alabi road.
Fayaz runs a mobile phone shop next to Mataji Hardware, and his house is just behind the house. He is said to be suffering from some illness and needed money for treatment, thus Samshuddin then gave him the idea to make money by threatening Bharat Bhai in the name of Ravi Poojary.
Fayaz and Samshuddin had earlier worked in Saudi Arabia. After coming back to Mangalore, Fayaz set up a mobile phone shop, while Samshuddin took up fishing. Samshuddin used to regularly visit Fayaz at his shop.
It is said, that on November 7, the first call was made to Bharat Bhai by Samshuddin. It is said that Samshuddin introduced himself as ‘Naveen’, an aide of underworld don Ravi Poojary, and demanded money. Bharat replied that he did not have money and disconnected the call.
Next day, on November 8, Samshuddin again called Bharat and repeated the demand. Again Bharat disconnected the call as before. About three hours later, Bharat got another call on his mobile phone, but he said he was not rich enough to pay hafta. The caller told him to pay Rs 10 lac immediately and threatened to kidnap his son if he failed to do so.
Bharat then approached the Bunder police the same day and lodged a complaint, to which the Bunder police led by inspector Cheluvaraju and PSI Ramakrishna K R under the guidance of police commissioner Manish Karbikar investigated the matter.
The police examined the calls made to Bharat Bhai’s mobile phone and traced them to Old Bunder and ultimately to Samshuddin. He was then arrested. Fayaz managed to escape and a search for him is on. Samshuddin was produced in court and remanded to judicial custody for 12 days.