Maharashtra: Latur shopkeeper attacked for refusing to pay 'protection money'

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A group of six persons allegedly attacked a 26-year-old shopkeeper in Maharashtra's Latur city with sharp weapons after he refused to pay 'protection money' to them, police said on Wednesday.

PTI reported that the shopkeeper was injured in the incident which took place on Tuesday in Mataji Nagar near Kavha Naka.

The accused went to the victim's pan shop and demanded Rs 2,000. When the victim refused to pay the money, they threatened him saying they would not allow him to operate to shop, a police official said.

Later, when the victim went home, the accused reached there and allegedly attacked him with sharp weapons while asking him to pay them Rs 15,000 per month if he wanted to run the shop, he said.

The accused allegedly took away a gold ring and Rs 12,800 cash from the victim, the police said.

Based on the victim's complaint, the Gandhi Chowk police have registered a case against the six accused, they said.

Murder convict nabbed from Telangana 12 years after jumping parole

Meanwhile, a 39-year-old murder convict, who was absconding for the last 12 years after jumping parole, has been arrested by the Mumbai police's crime branch from Telangana, a police official said.

The convict, Ashok Hanumanta Kajeri alias V Shiva Narsimullu, was staying in Mahabubnagar town of Telangana by changing his name and identity, the official said on Tuesday.

He was arrested by the Mumbai police in a case of murder which took place in 2007, said the official.

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Kajeri was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment by a sessions court in 2008 and was sent to Nashik Central Prison in Maharashtra to serve his jail term.

In 2011, he was released on a 30-day parole, but he did not return to the prison to complete his sentence and was absconding since then, the official said.

The Mumbai police had searched for him in Nashik, Jalna, Hingoli and Parbhani in Maharashtra and Kerala also, but he remained untraceable.

After several years, the crime branch officials got specific information about Kajeri's presence in Telangana from where he was finally nabbed, the official said.

Kajeri was subsequently brought to Mumbai and placed under arrest, he said. (PTI)