The police on 27th August arrested a youth for sending threatening messages to filmmaker Mahesh Manjrekar and demanding Rs. 35 crore. The accused, Milind Balkrishna Tulsankar, had faced huge losses in his business of tea vending, during the lockdown. He impersonated a member of the Abu Salem gang and threatened Manjrekar who complained to the Dadar (Bombay) police on 25th August. Mahesh Manjrekar told the police that the extortionist told him that he would meet the same fate as Gulshan Kumar if he did not pay up Rs. 35 crore. The police registered an offence and transferred the case to the anti-extortion cell.
The police said, the accused had seen many videos on Abu Salem, and got the filmmaker’s phone number from the voter registration website, MyNeta.com, as Mahesh Manjrekar had contested elections once. A police team tracked Milind although his mobile phone was switched off. He had shared his mobile phone number with Manjrekar. The police team accessed technical details from the phone company and traced the accused to Khed in Ratnagiri. He was booked for extortion and will be in police custody till 2nd September.