BMC employee, four others arrested for making extortion calls

Bharat Solanki is a conservancy worker with the BMC; (right) Amol Vichare, another of those accused, needed money after being released from jail.

A civic conservancy worker, who moonlighted as a gangster for money, was arrested by the crime branch recently. The cops recently arrested five Guru Satam gang members, including the worker, for making extortion calls to builders and businessmen. The police have revealed that the other four gang members, too, cited money as the reason for their getting into extortion.

Need for money
Bharat Solanki, a BMC employee, earned around Rs 25,000 a month, but needed more money to support his family. He met Bhushan Satam, son of Guru Satam (he is currently in jail in an extortion case), who asked him to get in touch with his father who could arrange some job for him.

Sources in the crime branch revealed that another of the five arrested accused, Amol Vichare, who was part of the Manchekar gang till 2002, and jailed for killing a businessman and needed money after being released, also came in contact with Satam. Satam told him to work as a property agent and he would arrange buyers. Vichare tried to sell several plots in Mira Road and Vasai, but failed. He then began to collect hafta for Satam from developers in Mumbai, Thane and Dombivli.

The other arrested accused are Rajesh Ambre, who has been booked in over 53 cases, and had completed a jail term in 2014; Bipin Dhotre who handled the finances for Satam; and Deepak Lodhiya, who collected information of builders and businessmen for Satam.

Worked on Satam's orders
Officials in the Anti-Extortion Cell (AEC), which is probing the case, said Satam promised to give the gang money, and asked them to work for him. A senior officer added it was on Satam's orders that they made extortion calls.

The arrested accused revealed that whenever they made extortion calls to businessmen and builders, they demanded crores. They were arrested when they called a well-known businessman and demanded R60 lakh. He promptly informed the police.

Also read: Mumbai: Clean-up marshals nabbed for trying to extort two men

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