MUMBAI: A suburban builder on Thursday lodged an FIR against Amit Wadhwani of Sai Estate Consultants and one Lalit Tekchandani, for allegedly sending a bouncer to his office, who threatened him to pay Wadhwani’s brokerage.
Chunabhatti police registered an FIR against the duo and the bouncer, Vijay Rajbhar, under IPC sections of issuing threats, extortion and criminal intimidation and are probing the matter.
When contacted, Wadhwani said it was a bogus case and will challenge it.
Complainant, developer Sanjay Devnani of Pardis Construction, told police he used the services of Wadhwani’s Sai Estate to sell his properties in the eastern suburbs between 2015 and 2017.
As there was no mutual agreement between them, their ties did not yield good results and Devnani discontinued Wadhwani’s services.
Three years later, on September 11 last, Wadhwani called Devnani and asked him to clear a ‘pending bill’ of Rs 20 lakh. The builder claimed he did not owe anything to Wadhwani and blocked his number.
On October 23, when he unblocked Wadhwani’s mobile number, the builder started getting a flurry of messages and calls from Wadhwani demanding his money.
Devnani said he sought a meeting but Wadhwani never replied. Later, the builder alleged one, Lalit Tekchandani, called him on behalf of Wadhwani and asked him to meet him.
In his police complaint, Devnani alleged that on November 2 when he visited Tekchandani’s office, Wadhwani and Tekchandani threatened him if he failed to pay up.
Devnani showed all his books to them to prove he owed nothing to him. Wadhawani then allegedly told him that since he defaulted on the payment, he would extract Rs 5 crore from him. Tekchandani would recover this money from him, Devnani alleged.
In a statement, Wadhwani denied the allegation: “Sanjay Devnani has been conducting business for seven years with us. He has failed to clear our dues and falsely implicated us of extortion. We reserve the right to lawfully recover our dues. We have all the ledgers acknowledged by Sanjay Devnani. We will be filing a defamation case against him immediately.”
“We have all the proof and in fact he had called us to make the payments. And he got the person falsely arrested. The FIR is bogus which we are challenging,” said Wadhwani.
When contacted, Tekchandani said he was not aware of the FIR. “I am attending a relative’s funeral and will get back soon,” he said.
A police officer at Chunabhatti police station said Devnani told the police that the duo threatened him to either give the money or transfer a flat in their name.
On December 17, Devnani said he received a threatening text message from Tekchandani that he was sending ‘one boy’ who will come to his house and will not go until he pays off.
Within ten minutes, bouncer Vijay Rajbhar arrived at Devnani’s office and told that Tekchandani had sent him and refused to leave unless he paid. “Devnani immediately dialed the Chunabhatti police which arrived at Devnani’s office and arrested Rajbhar,” said the police officer.
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/developer-booked-for-extortion-in-mumbai/articleshow/79825164.cms