Taxi driver arrested for extorting money from jeweller in Kurla

This picture has been used for representational purposes.

A taxi driver was arrested by the crime branch officials on Saturday for claiming to have kidnapped a Kurla-based jeweller's mentally challenged brother and extorting Rs 40 lakh as ransom from him. According to the police, the jeweller's 39-year-old brother was last seen on November 5 near his Kandivli East residence and has not been found yet, Indian Express reported.

The taxi driver, identified as Amir Shaikh (32) knows the jeweller as he would frequent their shop in Kurla and had reportedly found out that the brother had gone missing last November.

According to the police, on November 16, Shaikh called the jeweller through Voice-over Internet Protocol (VoIP) claiming that he kidnapped his brother and demanded Rs 40 lakh as ransom. The jeweller then filed a complaint against Shaikh in the Kurla police station after which they started tracking the origin of the call.

The police checked the footage of a few months from the CCTV camera installed in the shop after which inspectors Jagdish Sail and Yogesh Chavan and API Surekha Jaunjal identified the caller to be Shaikh. An officer said that an employee from the shop told Shaikh about the jeweller's missing brother.

According to the police, Shaikh had no previous record and thought as the ransom call would be a way to make quick bucks. On the other hand, the jeweller's brother remains missing.

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