Mumbai police invoke MCOCA in drug dealer’s kidnapping, extortion bid of Rs 50 lakh

Mumbai, Jul 16 (PTI) The Mumbai police have invoked the anti-organised crime law MCOCA in a case concerning the kidnapping of a drug dealer and his associate and an attempt to extort Rs 50 lakh, an official has said.

The charges under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act have been pressed against 14 arrested and five wanted accused. A chargesheet was filed in a Special MCOCA court on Thursday, he said.

The accused person had abducted Surat resident Sajid Electricwala and his associate Shabbir Mubarak Siddhique on June 12 from a hotel in Mumbai’s Oshiwara area, he said.

Citing the police investigation, the official said Sarvar Khan, one of the accused, had paid Rs 50 lakh to Electricwala on March 31 to set up a unit to manufacture the banned drug mephedrone. However, Electricwala neither produced the drugs nor returned the money.

The gang kidnapped Electricwala and Siddhique and took them to a farmhouse at Neral in Maharashtra’s Raigad district, where its members assaulted both and demanded money from them, the official said.

Siddhique, an estate agent, escaped on June 14 and subsequently approached the Oshiwara police station, fearing that the gang might Electricwala, the official said.

Based on his complaint, the police registered a case of kidnapping and extortion and transferred it to the crime branch. Subsequently, they arrested 14 persons, including Sarvar Khan, Mehtab, Santosh Waghmare, Satish Kadu, Yunus Theverpalli, Tausif Saindi and Rahul Sawant, the official said.

During the probe, the police ascertained that Mohammed Tausif Mohammed Hanif Saindi, alias Tausif Machandi, was the kingpin.

The mobile locations of the accused persons showed that the gang had taken Electricwala to Raigad, Nashik, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi over a month while trying to evade arrest, the official said.

The accused already face cases under the MCOCA and charges of extortion, kidnapping, drug trafficking, and arms offences.

Electricwala’s records showed that he was also involved in drug trafficking and manufacturing, he said.

The Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATM) had arrested Electricwala in 2015 and recovered a huge quantity of mephedrone in Mumbai, the official said.

Electricwala’s abduction was the fallout of a failed mephedrone deal for which the accused had given Rs 50 lakh to him to produce the banned drug, he added. PTI DC NR