Mumbai Crime: Man extorts Rs 50,000 from murder-accused's kin, arrested

This picture has been used for representational purposes.

A 39-year-old man was arrested by RCF police for allegedly extorting Rs 50,000 from the family of a woman arrested in a murder case. The accused, identified as Santosh Sathe is affiliated to a local political party and demanded Rs 50,000 from the woman's family saying that he knows the investigating officer in the case and can help by talking to him, to spare the woman from being tortured while in police custody, reported Indian Express.

According to the police, the woman, Reshma Oval was arrested by the crime branch along with her brother-in-law Sumit Patankar on December 8, for allegedly killing her brother and disposing off his body in the mangroves in Chembur.

Oval told police that her brother, Devendra Akhade (32) would, under the influence of alcohol, trouble the family, due to which she killed him in a fit of rage and dumped the body with Patankar's help.

A man who saw them dumping the body alerted the police and Oval and Patankar were arrested by the crime branch who handed them over to the RCF police station in a case of murder and destruction of evidence.

When Oval's family was at the police station, Sathe was also coincidentally present there and told them that they would be torturing by the police. He also said that he can talk to the police officer investigating the case for which he demanded Rs 50,000.

Chitra Patankar, the wife of the accused Sumit, had transferred the amount to Sathe's bank account. When she was talking to the investigating officer on Saturday, she filed an extortion case against Sathe.

An officer said that the case was registered on Saturday and police dispatched a team of officers to Govandi and arrest Sathe from his residence there.

Catch up on all the latest Crime, National, International and Hatke news here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates