Sacked Driver 'Raids' Ex-Employer Over Unpaid Salary, Tax Officials Help Him
A former driver and his accomplices, including two Income Tax officials, were arrested in Mumbai for attempting a 1-crore rupee extortion. The group posed as government officials to raid a businessman's office, mirroring a plot from a Bollywood film.
Why it matters
The incident highlights the vulnerability of businesses to impersonation scams and the misuse of official credentials by corrupt public servants.
What began as a salary dispute soured into a Rs 1-crore extortion attempt by a sacked driver, who was aided by two serving officials of the Income Tax Department and seven others, in Mumbai. But it did not quite work out as the businessman being targeted called the cops, who tracked the gang down using technical surveillance and trails, police said on Thursday.Police said the businessperson's former driver, Santosh Uday Khopatkar, 37, who had been dismissed without six months' salary, set the plot in motion. It was not mentioned how much money he was owed by the businessman, Rajkumar Kandasami, 49.But Khopatkar then tried a Rs 1-crore shakedown at once.
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