The Kurar police have arrested a 36-year-old man for allegedly impersonating a police officer and trying to extort Rs 5 lakh from Shiv Sena MLA Sunil Parbhu by threatening to frame him in a murder case. Accused Nishant, alias Sunny Parmar, even tricked the Kurar police into sharing the MLA’s contact details, said the cops. He was picked up from Beed last week.
Sources said Parmar is a habitual offender and has targeted jewellers, builders and other businessmen in the past using the same method. Originally from Gujarat, he once lived at Dahisar, said the police.
The police said Parmar called up the Kurar police station’s landline number and identified himself as officer Ramesh Singh Chauhan from Sanjan police station in Gujarat. Parmar allegedly said that he had arrested a person for illegally having a firearm. “Parmar also claimed that the arrested person had a murder case against him and it had been committed on the orders of the MLA,” said a source.
Parmar got Prabhu’s mobile number and demanded R5 lakh to “drop” his name from the investigation. “The MLA said he would pay Rs 2 lakh first, but got suspicious after Parmar told him to send the money through GPay. He alerted the police,” said the source.
Kurar police got in touch with the Sanjan outpost only to be told that they do not have any officer called Ramesh Singh Chauhan.
“We learnt that Parmar has more than 40 cases, several of them impersonating officers from the Crime Branch and NIA. He has been blackmailing businessmen and politicians,” said an officer from Kurar police.
The Unit XI of Mumbai Crime Branch had arrested Parmar in 2017 after he tried to extort R5 lakh from a businessman in Malad, by impersonating a Crime Branch officer. With the same fake identity, he had tried to collect money from a Malad developer. The officer added, “He often spun the illegal arms story.”
Surjitt Sahani
