Mumbai Crime: Five aides of fugitive don, Guru Satam, arrested for extortion

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The Anti-Extortion Cell on Friday arrested five people who worked for fugitive gangster Guru Satam. Probe has revealed that of the five, who engaged in extortion, one works as a BMC cleaner.

Like a clockwork
The police said the arrested have been identified as Amol Vichare (convicted in a murder case and recently released), Bharat Solanki (used to make the calls), Rajesh Ambre (has over 53 cases registered against him), Bipin Dhotre (handled Satam's finances and sent the extorted money to him via hawala), and Deepak Lodhiya (used to collect information about builders and businessmen and send it to Satam).

Police sources said Satam formed the gang last year. Dilip Sawant, DCP, crime branch, said, "He'd called a renowned businessman and demanded Rs 60 lakh. The victim had paid out of fear. Satam then became over-confident and tried extorting money from other businessmen. Later, when a victim approached us, we started working on the case."

In custody
Another officer said, "The accused had managed to go into hiding but we arrested them. There are others involved in this business." "Apart from a list of names of the people the gang was planning to target in the next couple of days, we have also recovered two firearms, five live rounds and 11 mobile phones. The accused were produced in court, which sent them to police custody till July 21," Sawant added.

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