30 April,2016 09:55 AM IST | | Shiva Devnath
24-year-old MBA student in Kandivli was arrested for demanding money from a popular pizza outlet accusing them of delivering a non-veg pizza when he had ordered vegetarian
The accused, Anil Ojha, was served the humble pie after the police caught him extorting the pizza company
Most people hosting a party would be thrilled just to get pizzas on time (or score one for free), but a 24-year-old MBA student in Kandivli tried to extort Rs 1 crore from a pizza company so he would have money to live a lavish life.
The accused, Anil Ojha, was served the humble pie after the police caught him extorting the pizza company
The student, Anil Ojha, falsely accused the pizza outlet of hurting religious sentiments by mixing up vegetarian and non-vegetarian pizzas, and threatened to defame the pizza outlet on social media unless it coughed up Rs 1 crore. He eventually settled for Rs 10 lakh, but was caught by the police when he went to collect the first installment on Thursday evening.
According to Kandivli police, it was Anil's friend - Mayur Patil - who had placed the order on April 4, calling for two pizzas (one veg and one non-veg).
But within an hour of dispatching the order, the outlet received another call from Mayur, claiming he had ordered only vegetarian pizzas.
From this point on, however, Anil took over and began to threaten the outlet manager, saying he would lodge a complaint as his friend is a Brahmin and his religious sentiments had been hurt by the non-vegetarian pizza. He also threatened to circulate a message about the 'mistake' on social networking sites and defame the company.
A few days later, Anil called again and demanded Rs 1 crore in return for keeping the matter quiet. After long negotiations, he agreed to settle for Rs 10 lakh and was told to collect the first installment of Rs 25,000 near MHADA colony, Mahavir Nagar in Kandivli (W) on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the outlet manager had complained to the police about the extortion, and the cops were waiting to ambush the accused. He was arrested by the Kandivli police and charged with extortion (IPC Section 384). They did not charge his friend who had placed the order, as they did not find evidence of his involvement.
Sources said 24-year-old Anil told the cops that he wanted to live a lavish life, so he hit upon this plan to dupe the pizza chain. Anil was produced in court and remanded to police custody.
