Mumbai: Two income-tax officials and two others were arrested Thursday for allegedly conducting a fake raid on a Chakala company and demanding Rs 1 crore, taking the total arrests in the case to 10. It was masterminded by a driver sacked by the company three months ago, said police.The two officials – I-T inspector Sureshkumar Mishra (57) posted at the Piramal Chamber office in Lalbaug, and tax assistant Sunil Gore (59) posted in the Kautilya Bhavan office in BKC – had earlier allegedly conducted a similar raid on a Manpada company and demanded Rs 65 lakh.In the Chakala case, the extortion was foiled by the company owner after he asked for authorisation documents for the raid.The raid was carried out at Two M Ophthotronics Pvt Ltd in Sahar Cargo Estate on July 17. Andheri police registered an FIR on September 4 following a complaint by company owner Rajkumar Kandasami, who sought documents for the raid. The ‘raiding’ party could not produce one and left empty-handed after 3 hours, police said. An internal inquiry and checks through his chartered accountant found that the I-T department had ordered no raid.Police sub-inspector Rohan Surve said two plainclothes men had approached Kandasami and his wife near their home, displayed an identity card, and forced them into an aggregator cab and took them to his office. The duo questioned employees, examined documents, and obtained Kandasami’s signature on a purported search warrant. They questioned him about cash transactions, threatened a substantial penalty, and offered to settle the purported case for Rs 1 crore.Senior inspector Umesh Machindar said they learnt that Kandasami’s former driver, Santosh Khopatkar (37), had provided the tip-off. Khopatkar, sacked three months earlier, wanted revenge and had allegedly sought I-T officials’ help to raid his former employer. Others arrested earlier were Vinay More (37), Prem Sabnani (50), Pragnya M, Reshma Warang (41) and Shabina Shaikh (48).DCP (West Zone-3) Datta Nalawade said they also took custody of Jitendra More of Thane and Ashok Shinde of Vile Parle West on Thursday. The duo was in judicial custody in the Manpada case.
