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The Mumbai Police on Wednesday arrested underworld don Chhota Rajan's wife and three others under the Maharashtra Control for Organised Crime Act for allegedly making extortion demands from a builder of Tilak Nagar area in North East Mumbai.
They were remanded in police custody till December 27 by MCOCA Judge Ashok Bhangale later in the afternoon.
Besides Chhota Rajan's wife Sujata Nikhalji, the others arrested are Suresh Shinde, Harvinder Singh alias Kookoo Daruwala and Rakesh Surve.
"The Chhota Rajan gang has already collected Rs 10 lakh from the builder in two installments of Rs five lakh each in January 2004, and now Suresh Shinde called up the builder and demanded Rs 20 lakh more," DCP Dhananjay Kamalakar of Mumbai crime branch told reporters in Mumbai on Wednesday.
Kamalakar claimed that Shinde, Bedi and Surve used to threaten builders for extortion, and in the present case, Rs 5 lakh of the extortion money collected so far had been accepted by Sujata alias Nani.
According to the DCP, underworld don Chhota Rajan and his close aide Bharat Nepali have been active in extorting money from builders who have undertaken redevelopment of plots in Tilak Nagar and Naidu colony of Ghatkopar, both in east Mumbai.
"They have threatened builders, their employees and even occupants of the apartments constructed in these areas to shell money to the gang," Kamalakar alleged.
The judge allowed Sujata to meet her children (three daughters) for 15 minutes at her Chembur residence before being remanded in police custody, following her counsel Satishmane Shinde's plea that the children would be alone at home since they had gone to school when she was picked up in the morning.