Man poses as RTI activist in Thane, extorts ₹5,000 from grocer

Vartak Nagar police on Wednesday arrested a 41-year-old man for posing as a right-to-information (RTI) activist and using it as a cover, threatened and extorted businessman, vegetable vendors, paan shop owners and food vendors.

The arrested man has been identified as 41-year-old Mahendra Singh Soni, a resident of Sawarkar Nagar in Thane.

P Giridhar, a senior police Inspector from Vartak Nagar police station said, “We are requesting people who have been cheated by Soni to come ahead and lodged a complaint. Soni tried to extort anyone in Thane, be it a vegetable vendor or food stall owner.”

Giridhar said Soni recently threatened a local grocer, saying he would expose his selling low-quality products and running a fake lottery, and extorted money from him.

Police learned that Soni had extorted as much as ₹5,000 in the month of October from the grocer and later demanded he pays him the same amount every month for the next five years.

Giridhar said, “It was on Tuesday when Soni went to the grocer’s shop and asked for ₹5,000 and threatened to lodge a complaint at Mantralaya (the working office of the state government) and his business would be subsequently shut down. The grocer asked him to come the next day.”

On that very day, the grocer approached the Vartak Nagar police and lodged a complaint against Soni.

Late at night, police laid a trap and caught Soni. “We produced him in court and he was remanded in police custody till November 26. We will hand over Soni to the Thane Anti Extortion cell for investigation as many other fake RTI activists have been arrested.”