Four held for Rs 2 crore extortion bid in Margao

Fatorda police escorting Walter Fernandes to the Margao Court on Tuesday evening to seek his remand in the extortion case.

MARGAO
Acting swiftly on a complaint lodged by Shrinivas Thorwat, the Managing Partner of Ambica Realty, the Fatorda police arrested four persons, including Walter Fernandes, a resident of Raia, for allegedly issuing threats and to extort money amounting to Rs 2 crore from the complainant.

Besides Walter, the Fatorda police arrested in the case include Tirupati Varkuri, resident of Margao, Rohit Faldessai, resident of Fatorda and Vinod Kumar Totad, a resident of Maina-Curtorim.

The four accused have been arrested under Section 126 (2), 351(2), 308(5) r/w 3(5) of BNS 2023. They have been remanded to three days police custody.

Sources pointed out that the police sent a message to Walter through his lawyer to come to the police station for an inquiry following the complaint lodged by Shrinivas Thorwat. Sources said when Walter arrived at the police station, he was taken into custody late night. The remaining three accused named in the complaint were also arrested.

Interestingly, when the Fatorda police produced Walter before the Judicial Magistrate First Class, Margao on Tuesday evening, the police made a case for his remand to police custody on the ground that the accused is required in custody to recover a weapon.

Complainant Shrinivas Thorwat had on Monday lodged a complaint with the Fatorda police alleging that the accused persons on August 14 with their common intention wrongfully restrained him, threatened to cause bodily injuries to him and his minor children and further allegedly tried to extort an amount of Rs 2 crore from him by putting him fear of death over the issue of construction of apartments in Benaulim.

A glance at Thorwat’s complaint revealed that he had a dispute with Tirupati Varkuri,  a construction contractor over payment of money and completion of construction projects.