CCTV film shows an extortionist trapped by staffers as he returned to collect ‘hafta’on Tuesday

MUMBAI: A few men in white linen clothes walked into a liquor shop on Sidhwa Road in Fort last week. And posing as political party workers, they asked the staff if they had a licence and other documents.

But, little did they know that the shop belonged to Ashok Patel , 65, who had got 117 persons—including cops, I-T staff and officials of various departments—arrested for extortion in the last 25 years.

They learnt it the hard way on Tuesday when one of them returned to knock off ‘hafta’ (bribe) of Rs 7 lakh. How? Patel and his staff literally made a ‘trap’: they locked the door from outside and called up the police control room. The Marine Drive police then arrived and arrested Rajendra Waghmare, a Dadar resident, making him Number 118. His three accomplices too were arrested, taking Patel’s ‘trapped’ count to 121.

Among 117 trapped over the last 25 years were police inspector Anand Bhoir, held for demanding and accepting Rs22 lakh last year, and various sales tax and I-T personnel, policemen, BMC officials, fire brigade staff, Railway Protection Force cops, Mhada officials and smugglers and drug peddlers. Of the 117 ‘trapped,’ 35 were frauds posing as government officers.

“The four men had been asking for monthly ‘hafta’ of Rs7 lakh and a few wine bottles. I am an honest tax-payer and don’t indulge in illegal activities, so why should I pay them? I kept bargaining with them and on Tuesday, they thought they could make a final deal,” said Patel, who is president of the Fort Merchants Association which represents the interests of 425 shopkeepers and traders.

Tuesday’s incident, where Waghmare parked his car outside the wine shop and walked in and demanded money, has been captured in the shop’s CCTV cameras. Patel’s son Bhavesh called up the police after one of the staffers had locked the main door from outside. During interrogation, Waghmare told police about his three aides——Sanjay Ahire, Janardhan Gyanit and Manish Tambe— and police suspect they may have been collecting money from other shopkeepers in the area as well.

Patel, who hails from Bhuj, said he feels “relieved” every time he traps people on the wrong side of the law and has received more than 100 cash rewards and certificates from government agencies so far. “The most remarkable case was in 2012, when I tipped off the income-tax department and got a cash reward of Rs5 lakh,” he said. He added that he was not much educated but was “tech savvy” and had “all modern gadgets to tape, video-record and do sting operations.”

Recalling a December 2003 case where he helped the Cuffe Parade police to catch three policemen who had kidnapped three traders from Hutatma Chowk, he said the traders had been held by their kidnappers under the Chowpatty bridge for a ransom demand of Rs25,000. He has also helped the authorities in Gujarat to crack some cases, he added

