One held for making extortion calls to Mahesh Manjrekar

Milind Tulsankar

THE Anti Extortion Cell (AEC) of Mumbai Police arrested Milind Tulsankar, 34, for allegedly making ransom calls to film director and actor Mahesh Manjrekar. The accused called and messaged the actor claiming to be a member of gangster Abu Salem alias Captain's gang and demanded R35 crore as ransom.

According to Mumbai Police, after receiving messages and calls, Manjrekar registered a complaint with the Dadar police station and the case was soon handed over to AEC. "Based on the initial information, the teams were deployed at two different locations in Kalyan and Ratnagiri. We launched a search in those locations and arrested the accused from Ratnagiri," said Akbar Pathan, DCP Crime Branch.

During the investigation, AEC officials learnt that the accused dropped out of TYBCom and that he stole a relative's SIM card to threaten Manjrekar. The accused procured Majrekar's contact number from myneta.com - a website which has the contact number of politicians including Manjrekar's as he contested polls on MNS ticket in 2014.

"The accused messaged him and asked to transfer money via hawala," Pathan added. The AEC has seized a mobile phone and two SIM cards from the accused and is probing if he made any similar threatening messages or calls to any other film personalities.

Tulsankar was brought to Mumbai and produced before the court where he was remanded in police custody till September 2.

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