'Daddy' movie inspires Mulund youngster to extort Rs 1.5 crore from uncle

Vishal Panchal (L) and Idris Hashmi (R) after their arrest. Pic/Rajesh Gupta

Bollywood films continue to be a strong influence on youngsters, albeit a bad one on some. The Mulund police have arrested a youth recently, for trying to extort money from none other than his uncle. He claimed to have been influenced by the film, Daddy.

The threatening call
Virabhai Panchal, 71, stays with his wife and two children in Mulund Colony, and owns a factory in Murbad, which makes parts for Mahindra tractors. On March 25, he received a call from an unknown mobile number, and the caller introduced himself as Raghu Shinde, an important member of gangster Arun Gawli's gang. The caller threatened Virabhai in Marathi asking him to pay Rs 1.5 crore or his children would be killed. Virabhai ignored this call.

On March 27, he received a call from the same number. The caller again threatened him and asked for R1.5 crore. This time Virabhai carefully recorded the conversation. He then approached Mulund police and filed an FIR.

Based on Virabhai's statement and recording, a senior police inspector and his team searched the data on Gawli's gang members to trace Raghu. They did not find anything. Simultaneously police traced the caller to Murbad and made a shocking discovery. The caller was none other than Virabhai's nephew, Vishal Kumar Panchal, 24. Vishal had been raised by Virabhai, after the death of his parents. He works as a labour contractor in Virabhai's factory and stays near it in Murbad.

Reel to real
Police said Vishal confessed to the crime and said that he wanted to start his own iron nail-making factory, and required approximately Rs 1.5 crore for that. He knew that Virabhai might not lend him this amount, so he thought of extorting the same from him.

To make his plan foolproof, he decided to call him in the name of Raghu Shinde, an important character in the film Daddy. Shripad Kale, senior PI Mulund police station said, "We arrested Vishal and his partner-in-crime and friend Idris Mukhtar Hashmi, 20, and booked both under Sections 387 (putting person in fear of death), 385 (putting person in fear of injury) and 34 (common intention) of the IPC. Both were produced before court and remanded in judicial custody."

Also View: Photos: Arun Gawli, the original 'Daddy' of Mumbai

Catch up on all the latest Mumbai news, crime news, current affairs, and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates