Extortion on Pune-Mumbai Highway: Impostors Threaten Lonavala-Bound Tourists with False Drug Charges, Demand Rs 5 Lakh; Flee as Victims Alert Police
Kamshet, 6th July 2026: In a terrifying highway extortion attempt, a 28-year-old insurance analyst from Pune and his visiting friends from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar were intercepted and held hostage in their own car on Sunday evening by six unidentified men.
The suspects threatened the tourists with false drug possession charges and tried to extort ₹5 lakh from them before fleeing the spot when the victims attempted to contact the police.
The Pune Rural Police have registered a case against six unidentified suspects under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023, at the Kamshet Takve Police Station.
According to the FIR, the complainant, Bhushit Umesh Sharma (28), a resident of Viman Nagar, Pune, works as an analyst at an insurance company. His friend, Mohammad Kashan Azmi (28), along with his wife Faiza Jamil (27) and brother-in-law Syed Zubair Ahmed (31)—all residents of CIDCO, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar—had arrived in Pune five days ago for a vacation.
On Sunday, July 5, 2026, the group decided to go to Lonavala for sightseeing. They set out from Viman Nagar around 12:30 PM in Sharma’s Tata Punch (MH-12-WZ-1692), with Sharma at the wheel, Ahmed in the front passenger seat, and Azmi and Jamil in the back.
The ordeal began later that afternoon between 4:30 PM and 7:00 PM when their vehicle was intercepted within the jurisdiction of the Kamshet Takve Police Station, roughly 15 kilometers north of the station. A group of six unidentified men traveling in a Mahindra Xylo car stopped them.
The suspects confronted the group, claiming they were carrying illegal narcotics. “Hand over the ganja (cannabis) or drugs in your car immediately, or else we will search your vehicle and initiate severe police action against you,” the suspects threatened.
Upon searching the car, the suspects discovered a packet of Amber Leaf brand cigarettes belonging to Mohammad Azmi. Using the cigarette packet as a pretext to frame the tourists, the suspects demanded a massive bribe of ₹5 lakh to “settle” the matter and avoid police arrest.
The suspects then forced themselves into the victims’ Tata Punch, effectively taking them hostage, and ordered them to drive to an ATM in Talegaon Dabhade to withdraw the extortion money.
The breakthrough came when the car reached Talegaon. Sensing an opportunity, the victims secretly initiated contact with the police. Realizing that the victims were alerting law enforcement, the two suspects inside the victims’ car panicked. They immediately got out of the Tata Punch, leaped into their waiting accomplice getaway Xylo car, and sped away from the scene, leaving the shaken tourists behind.
Following the incident, Bhushit Sharma approached the Kamshet Takve Police Station and lodged a formal written complaint early on Monday morning, July 6, 2026. The FIR (No. 0152/2026) was officially registered at 5:26 AM.
An FIR has been registered against six unknown policemen under Pune rural police for kidnapping four persons who were travelling from Pune to Lonavala in a car. The policemen stopped the car under the pretext of checking the vehicle and threatened the two boys and the couple… pic.twitter.com/xGJi4yeNdg
— Imtiaz Jaleel (@imtiaz_jaleel) July 6, 2026
The Pune Rural Police have booked the six unidentified suspects under the following sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), 2023:
Section 127(2): Wrongful confinement
Section 308(2): Extortion
Section 352: Assault or use of criminal force
Section 351(2) & 351(3): Criminal intimidation, including threats to cause death or grievous hurt
Section 3(5): Acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention (joint liability)
The investigation has been handed over to Sub-Inspector (SI) Akash Ghanshyam Pawar of the Kamshet Police Station.
