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An accused who had been evading arrest in an extortion case for the past six months surrendered before the Mulund police on Friday. An accused who had been evading arrest in an extortion

case for the past six months surrendered before the Mulund police on Friday. Senior PI JJ Jadhav said, “Rakesh Shetty was arrested for trying to extort Rs1 crore from Mulund-based steel

trader Kirtikumar Salot.” Salot had been allegedly arrested by the CBI in May last year for not paying back a bank loan of Rs7 crore. Shetty and his associates had approached him, claiming

that they could “settle the case” if he paid them Rs1 crore. “After Shetty’s associates — Ashish Rathod and Arun Deomise — were arrested in October 2012, Shetty got scared and approached the

sessions court and later the high court for anticipatory bail. When both courts rejected his bail plea, he went absconding,” Jadhav said. Shetty was released on a surety of Rs50,000 by the

holiday court on Sunday, but the Mulund police will soon approach the sessions court to cancel his bail. In March 2011, Salot took a loan of Rs7 crore from the Indian Overseas Bank for his

business. When he defaulted in its payment, he was arrested by the Economic Offences Wing of the CBI after the bank registered a case against him. Trying to take advantage of the situation,

Shetty and his aides called Salot’s wife and daughter-in-law to their Mulund office. They reportedly told them they could settle Salot’s case as they had good contacts with top politicians

in Delhi, the CBI, bank and local police. Rathod contacted the trader’s wife on June 26 and instructed her to give them Rs75 lakh as Shetty had spoken to a few influential people in Delhi

about the case. However, Salot refused to pay the money. Then on July 14, when Salot was driving to his office, Rathod and Deomise intercepted his car, dragged his driver out and allegedly

threatened to kill him if Salot did not pay them. Initially, Salot did not want to involve the police. But when Shetty kept threatening to bring the CBI case to the notice of other financial

institutions he was trying to seek loans from, Salot wrote to the additional commissioner of police (East), Quaiser Khalid, who then directed the police to register an FIR against Shetty

and his two aides. _ @dayanand_kamath_