Tea-seller who tried to extort Rs 35 crore from Mahesh Manjrekar held

Film-maker Mahesh Manjarekar

A 34-year tea-seller, who attempted to extort Rs 35 crore from actor and film-maker Mahesh Manjrekar, was nabbed from Maharashtra's Ratnagiri, police said on Thursday. According to Deputy Commissioner of Police Akbar Pathan, the accused is Milind B. Tulsankar, living in Diva town of Thane.

As per the investigations, Tulsankar had made threat calls August 23-25 to Manjrekar, posing as a henchman of jailed mafia don Abu Salem. He demanded Rs 35 crore as extortion money to be delivered via 'hawala' and warned Manjrekar of death if he failed to comply.

Manjrekar approached the Dadar police and the case was taken over by the Anti-Extortion Cell of Mumbai Police which started the probe with three teams fanning out in Thane and Ratnagiri.

Using techint, they finally managed to track down Tulsankar to Khed town in Ratnagiri, nabbed him and brought him to Mumbai. He was produced before a court which sent him to police custody till September 2.

Upon interrogation, he revealed that he was inspired by videos of a mafia don's extortion style on social media, managed to get Manjrekar's number from a website and got into the act.

Investigations are on to ascertain if Tulsankar had made similar calls to any other persons, said Pathan.

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