Thane: Police have arrested Bhiwandi unit president of theAll India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) and his three associates for allegedly kidnapping and extorting money from a builder, an official said on Friday.
Criminal cases
Mohammad Khalid Shaikh alias Guddu (47), who heads the AIMIM in Bhiwandi town in Thane district, has a number of criminal cases registered against him, police said.
DCP (Bhiwandi) Rajkumar Shinde said the police, acting on a tip-off, raided the house of Shaikh and found that the builder had been held captive there.
Shaikh and his three associates were asking the builder to pay up Rs 1.25 lakh and had pointed a weapon at him, he said.
Kidnapping, extortion
They were arrested and booked under IPC sections related to kidnapping and extortion, and also provisions of the Arms Act, Shinde said.
The Crime Branch is conducting further probe into the case, the police stated.
Shaikh faces several criminal cases, including kidnapping, extortion and attempt to murder, in Bhiwandi, Pune, Mumbai, Raigad and also Gujarat, they said.
He was earlier a corporator and in the 2019 assembly polls in Maharashtra, had filed his nomination from the Bhiwandi West constituency as the AIMIM candidate, but his papers were rejected during scrutiny.