Overview
- Borivali police posed as the complainant, negotiated a handover in gold, and arrested the first suspect at Mahim before detaining three others in Bandra and Jogeshwari.
- The jeweller received threats from a +44 WhatsApp number demanding ₹30 lakh and warning of a killing like Baba Siddique’s, later bargaining to ₹4 lakh with an Indian Google Pay number shared for part payment.
- The arrested men were identified as residents of Wasseypur, Dhanbad, and were allegedly acting on instructions from an absconding mastermind using international numbers.
- The four accused were produced in court and remanded in police custody until March 4 as investigators expand the probe beyond the Borivali case.
- Similar extortion attempts targeting jewellers in Vile Parle and DN Nagar are under investigation, with nine arrests reported across stations and potential links to Jamtara-based cyber fraud being examined.