Extortion Threats Linked to Underworld Criminal Hemant Poojari: One Arrested
Udupi: Police have arrested a man accused of colluding with underworld criminal Hemant Poojari to threaten businessmen and prominent personalities in Udupi district and extort money from them.
The accused is identified as Suresh Amin, 38, a resident of Batrathota House in Ermal Bada village.
Eight cases have been registered in connection with alleged threats issued by Hemant Poojari, who reportedly demanded crores of rupees from businessmen and prominent personalities over phone calls and threatened to kill them if they failed to pay. Of these cases, five were registered at the Padubidri Police Station and one each at Shirva, Kaup, and Manipal police stations.
During the investigation, police took Suresh Amin into custody on suspicion of providing Hemant Poojari with the mobile phone numbers and other information of the targeted businessmen and prominent personalities, allegedly facilitating the crimes. He was subsequently questioned and arrested.
Technical evidence reportedly revealed that, in one of the cases, Amin and Poojari allegedly conspired to murder a businessman who refused to pay the demanded amount and stopped answering their calls.
Police further alleged that Poojari transferred Rs 5 lakh to Amin in connection with the crime. After accounting for the amount spent, police seized the remaining Rs 4.13 lakh from Amin.
The accused was produced before the court in Udupi and remanded to judicial custody. As investigators suspect more people may be involved, police have taken him into custody for further interrogation and investigation, Udupi Superintendent of Police Hariram Shankar said.