Representative image

PUNE: The Sinhagad Road police on Saturday arrested three persons for posing as members of a cow protection group and trying to extort Rs 50,000 from a meat transporter in Baramati .

Girish Sonawane arrested Mayank Kailas Kamble (19), Sagar Dattatreya Dhavade (27) and Suraj Narendra Valmiki (22) had also threatened to kill the transporter and set ablaze his vehicle.

Probe revealed that they had earlier extorted over Rs 1.5 lakh from the complainant, Mehboob Qureshi (30). Sub-inspector Girish Sonawane said Qureshi and his brother ran a meat trade and had taken a shop on rent near a slaughter house in Baramati.

“The Qureshi brothers daily transport buffalo meat to Mumbai from Baramati,” he said, adding that Qureshi and his driver left Baramati around 1pm on Saturday with the day’s order.

When they reached Vadgaon Budruk around 5.30pm, three men on a scooter blocked their way and assaulted Qureshi and the driver. The trio alleged that Qureshi was transporting cow meat and demanded Rs 50,000 from him. Qureshi sought some time to arrange the amount and alerted the police.

A local court on Sunday remanded them in police custody for two days.

