Thane: The Thane crime branch arrested two men, including an accused in a high-profile Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) bribery case, for allegedly extorting Rs 2 lakh from a local businessman by threatening municipal action.Police identified the accused as Sushant Sanjay Surve and Akshay Jayant Karanjavkar. According to investigators, Karanjavkar posed as an RTI activist and allegedly threatened businessman Viral Patel with closure of his shops through civic authorities. Surve allegedly acted as the mediator in the deal and initially demanded Rs 5 lakh to “settle” the complaints. Acting on a complaint, police laid a trap and caught the duo while allegedly accepting Rs 2 lakh on March 13. Surve was earlier arrested in a bribery case. In that probe, the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) alleged that Surve acted as an intermediary in the bribery transaction. Officials said the latest arrest indicates that Surve allegedly resumed similar extortion activities while out on bail. Both accused were booked under BNS, and were remanded to custody till March 16.
