KALYAN: Three persons have been arrested by the Kalyan unit of the Thane Crime Branch for allegedly demanding Rs 15 lakh from a contractor executing a major civic project in Dombivli by threatening to repeatedly file complaints and stall the work. Police said the complainant, Harshal Kene (24), works as a supervisor with Ajwani-Metacon Joint Venture, which is executing drain and sewer construction works for the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) in Dombivli. The project is valued at around Rs 188 crore. According to investigators, the accused had obtained documents related to the project through the Right to Information (RTI) Act and subsequently submitted a written complaint to the MIDC Executive Engineer, alleging that the company was carrying out the work using inferior-quality materials and demanding action against the contractor. Police said the accused then allegedly approached the company and offered to stop pursuing the complaints in exchange for money. They allegedly demanded 1% of the total contract value and threatened to repeatedly file complaints with MIDC and disrupt the execution of the project if the payment was not made. During negotiations, the alleged demand was later reduced to Rs 15 lakh. Fed up with the alleged harassment, the company approached the Kalyan Crime Branch, following which senior police inspector Ajit Shinde formed a special team and laid a trap. During the operation, the police caught Dipesh Gautam Lokhande, 34 while he was allegedly accepting Rs 15 lakh on behalf of the other accused. Based on his interrogation, two more accused were arrested. The arrested accused have been identified as Dipesh Gautam Lokhande (31), Rahul Sudhakar Mukadam (30) and Vishal Gangaram Janakar (31). Police are searching for another accused, Naresh Rajendra Suryavanshi (29). A case of extortion, criminal intimidation and other relevant offences has been registered. Crime Branch officials are now probing whether the accused are part of an organised extortion racket targeting contractors executing government infrastructure projects and whether they have similarly extorted money from other contractors in the past.
