Navi Mumbai: A 15-year-old teenager traumatized by his school mates began to rapidly lose weight when the accused threatened to kill him and his family if he does not comply with their demands.
According to sources, two Class IX students and school mates of the victim studying in English medium school in kamothe harassed him to pay their extortion demands of Rs 3 lakh and more in the past 18 months, TOI reports.
The accused claimed that one of their cousin and partner in crime is known to have good relations with the goons who have choppers and swords.
The matter came to light when the victim had gone for a check-up on Sunday at Kalamboli hospital while his mother received the accused call meant for him.
“Kaam ho gaya kya?” was what the caller asked. When asked about his identity he introduced himself as a friend of her son’s which made the mother suspicious.
Despite the mother asking for answers, the victim denied anything suspicious
about the caller.
The very next day the victim’s father who runs a
transport business, discovered that cash was missing from their home. Upon asking
the victim said he spent the money to buy snacks for himself this made the
father suspicious too. On further probing the father found the boy had been
lying to him all the time.
The furious father threatened to take him to the police station. The traumatized boy finally broke his silence.
Over the past 10 days, one of the accused had extorted Rs 70,000 from he boy.
When the victim family approached the principal to take action against the accused, the parents of the accused boy threatened him, forcing him to take legal action against them.
According to the complaint, between January 2018
and June 2019, Rs 2.5 lakh in cash, a gold chain worth Rs 30,000 and a mobile
phone worth Rs 10,000 were extorted by the accused.
“The main accused, a classmate of my son, has been threatening my son for a year and a half with the help of his cousin. He threatened to kill my son and our family. The other classmate twice extorted money. It was the cousin who did the actual collection. He would drive his car to the school to collect. Twice, he even came near our residence to collect money from my son. I don’t know what they were doing with the money,” the complaint said.
“The cash that’s now gone was kept for medical,
insurance, and savings purposes in our home. The accused sold the gold chain
and the mobile phone after pocketing them from my son. The cousin is not a
minor,” the father added.
Assistant inspector Anil Devale of Kamothe
police said, “The accused minors have been booked under the IPC’s sections 386
(extortion by putting a person in fear of death or grievous injury) and 34
(involvement of a number of persons with common intention).”