Overview
- Three men who claimed to be Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation marshals stopped an auto and coerced the passenger to pay Rs 19,500 for an alleged smoking violation.
- The victim questioned their identity, was threatened, shown a third man presented as a senior, and made to transfer the money online before the suspects fled.
- The complainant later filed a police case and detectives used CCTV footage and technical surveillance to identify and trace the men to Powai.
- Police arrested Amit Kulaye, Sudheer Pujari and Vinod Sadar, seized two motorcycles and recovered Rs 10,850, and the three were produced before a magistrate and remanded to judicial custody.
- Authorities are continuing the probe to determine whether the trio carried out similar impersonation-extortion incidents, a tactic police say has targeted commuters in the city.