Dadar doctor loses Rs 1.5 lakh to conmen

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The Shivaji Park police have registered a case against two men who allegedly extorted Rs 1.5 lakh from a Dadar based doctor. The duo posed as officials with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and threatened to ‘take action' against him for ‘illegal renovation' at his house in order to extort the amount from him.

According to police sources, the victim stays on the Ranade Road in Dadar (West) and has a clinic in Mahim. The police said that he was at his clinic when he received a call from his maid on the afternoon of April 20. When he answered it, a man spoke to him from the other end, saying that he was a BMC official.

"The man told me that the renovation I had started in my house recently was illegal, and that he had come to serve me a notice. He further said that I would have to pay Rs 10 lakh as penalty. I appealed to them to not take action and they asked me to come home as soon as possible," the victim has told the police in his statement.

The complainant rushed home to find two men waiting for him. Both had ID cards and one of them was holding a diary in his hand. The men claimed to be from the BMC's G North ward office and said that the renovated parts of his house would be demolished if he did not pay the fine of Rs 10 lakh. They also asked him to call a number and speak to "their superior".

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"The supposed superior told the victim that he could get out of paying the fine by just paying Rs 2.5 lakh to the men at his house. The victim said he did not have that much money, and a ‘settlement' was ultimately reached at Rs 1.5 lakh. The victim took the duo to his clinic and gave them the cash. The men told him that the ward officer and other civic officials would also get a cut, and he would not be bothered henceforth," said an officer with the Shivaji Park police station.

A couple of hours later, the victim became suspicious and shared Closed Circuit Television camera footage of the duo from his clinic with some people he knew in the BMC. They told him that they had never seen these men before, and the victim realized that he had been cheated.

He subsequently rushed to the Shivaji Park Police station and registered an offence against unknown persons. The police have booked them under sections 170 (impersonating a public servant), 384 (extortion) and 34 (act committed in furtherance of common intention) under the Indian Penal Code and are on the lookout for them.