Photo for representation
Pune: Pune City police crime branch on Tuesday evening arrested three men — all deployed by traffic police on towing vans — for allegedly extorting Rs3,000 from a businessman in Koregaon Park on June 20. The 46-year-old businessman, a resident of South Main Road, lodged a complaint against them with the Koregaon Park police station on Tuesday morning. The car owner reached the traffic division, where the towing van attendants allegedly asked him to pay Rs10,000 as a fine. The businessman paid Rs3,000 to them and asked for a receipt, but they told him to visit later to collect it.
Sub-inspector Shrikant Chavan of the anti-extortion cell said, “We have arrested the three towing van attendants — Akash Sawant, Sameer Ansari and Shaikh Shaukat Ansari — in the case. ” According to the police, the businessman had parked his car in a no-parking area in Koregaon Park on June 20. Suspecting something amiss regarding the receipt, he approached a senior officer, following which the case was registered,” Chavan said. “He had diligently followed up on the receipt issue for the past two months and approached senior officers after he did not receive any response from the towing van attendants,” he said.
The case was subsequently transferred to the crime branch for further investigation. The towing van attendants picked up the car and took it to the traffic division. For the past two months, he had been following up with the traffic police, demanding a receipt for his payment. However, the towing van operators kept dilly-dallying over his demand.