Mumbai: The Mumbai Police has successfully busted a gang that is allegedly involved in the practice of extorting money from its victims under the guise of running a car transport company, an official said on Sunday. Three individuals were arrested in this case for allegedly operating the fake car transport business and associated website. The official explained that the trio would first pick up the car for delivery from the customer before sending them a video of the car being loaded onto a container truck. Subsequently, they would send fake location updates to the customers to show that their vehicles were in transit. But, in actuality, their vehicles would never be shipped and were unloaded by the trio immediately after sending the first video. 

The accused would use these fake location updates to claim that the customer's vehicle was nearing its destination and would demand extra money from them under the pretext of paying tolls, GST, travel insurance, etc. They would allegedly even threaten the customers that they would dump their vehicles midway or damage them if the money was not paid.    

The gang was exposed after a businessman approached the police and an FIR was registered.

"Police tracked one of the accused Pankaj Bhardwaj (22) to Taloja in Navi Mumbai based on the location of a mobile phone number. He was loading and unloading a stolen car when police raided the spot," the official said.

Subsequently, another accused, Imran Abdul Gani Pathan, was arrested on Saturday.

Based on the details shared by the arrested duo, the gang leader, identified as Hanuman Bhardwaj, was nabbed from Haryana, the official said, adding that the police have registered a case on charges of cheating, conspiracy, extortion and other sections of the Indian Penal Code.

The trio was produced before a court which remanded them in police custody, the official added.

With inputs from PTI.