Pune: Four Held for Attempting to Extort Rs 5 Crore from Builder Using Gangster’s Name
Camp, 13th August 2025: The Pune police have arrested four men accused of trying to extort Rs 5 crore from a Camp-based builder by invoking the name of a notorious Mumbai gangster Arun Gavli.
The arrests, carried out late Monday night and in the early hours of Tuesday, were the result of a joint operation led by Senior Police Inspectors Shailesh Shankhe and Girish Dighavkar, along with Inspector Pradeep Pawar and other officers. The case has been registered at the Cantonment police station, and efforts are underway to trace another suspect involved in the conspiracy.
The arrested men have been identified as Rohan Shivaji Gaware (30), a Koregaon Park resident; Sudarshan Asamanrao Gayake (27), from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar; and Beed residents Mahendra Ramnath Shelke (42) and Krushna Parmeshwar Budhnar (26).
According to police, the extortion attempt began on July 28, when a caller claiming to be the gangster’s personal aide demanded Rs 5 crore from the builder, warning of “serious consequences” if the payment was not made. Similar threats followed on August 4, 9, and 11. Alarmed by the repeated intimidation, the builder approached DCP (Crime Branch) Nikhil Pingale and DCP (Zone 2) Milind Mohite, who quickly set up a trap to catch the culprits.
“Late Monday night, the suspects arrived in a luxury SUV to collect the money. Our team, already positioned at the spot, apprehended them before any transaction took place,” said Senior PI Girish Dighavkar.
Investigations revealed that the builder had been in a dispute with his business partner over a hotel construction project in Camp. The partner had taken the matter to court to recover his investment. “While the case is still being heard, we suspect the partner may have approached one of the accused, who then hatched the extortion plan,” Dighavkar added.
Police are now probing possible links between the accused and organised crime networks in Maharashtra.
