Resident had complained of extortion

Resident had complained of extortion
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

MUMBAI, MARCH 4: While housing society squabbles are routine and raise no eyebrows it was perhaps for the first time that a chairperson and secretary of the society were arrested for eight hours, reportedly at the behest of a deputy police commissioner.

Shivraj Ratnam, of the Indian Foreign Service and resident of Green Field Housing Society, Andheri (E) , who is in Mumbai to make a film on Kashmir says he bought the flat in in December last year. Around the first week of February he sent a letter requesting a No-Objection Certificate from the society's committee members to carry out repair work depositing Rs 2,000 as per the rules. He then waited for almost five days for the society to respond failing which he sent them another letter asking them to expediate the matter as he had occupy the house by February 28. The society gave him a verbal go-ahead, saying that a written NOC was not required.

The work was stopped within a week when the chairperson Japnam Singh Kochhar and secretary PA Temkar, paid Ratnam a visit, alledgedly to demand Rs 25,000 for each of them, for maintaining ``good relations'' with him.

Ratnam then filed an FIR with the MIDC police station accusing Temkar and Kochchar of extortion.

According to Temkar,``Ratnam started the renovation without permission. He illegally increased the size of the windows and the alterations have been carried out in violation of the building plans approved by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation.''

``In fact when we said that he better adhere to the plans or the society would have to complain to the BMC, Ratnam just laughed and said he had contacts there. The committee members could complain all they wanted to. It wouldn't hurt him at all.''

Society members claim that Ratnam used his police contacts and lodged an FIR with the MIDC police station falsely accusing Kochhar and Temkar of extortion. They say that the next day, on February 24, Ratnam accompanied by two police constables searched the houses of Kochhar and Temkar in their absence when only the women and children were present and used indecent language. They left a message for the men to report at MIDC police station. When Kochhar and Temkar did so the next day along with some other society members, the police arrested the duo under section 385 (extortion) of the Indian Penal Code and kept them in jail for eight hours before they were released on bail.

Members claim that junior officers in the police station said their hands were tied. The orders to arrest the two had come from the Bipin Bihari, DCP, zone 9.

However, senior PI at MIDC police station, Abdul Rauf, said that they had merely responded to a complaint made by Ratnam. ``The committee members refused to give permission to Ratnam for internal repairs, so he went ahead and started anyway. When some plaster from the adjacent houses came off during this process, Ratnam was ready to compensate. But he was asked to pay Rs 50,000 without getting a receipt for it,'' says Rauf.

Enraged society members on Sunday marched in a crowd of about 150 to the MIDC police station and presented a memorandum demanding that DCP Bihari be suspended till further inquiry. They also asked for a CID inquiry on Shivraj Ratnam and have registered a molestation complaint against him under section 354 of the IPC.