World | India
Suspect in extortion case nabbed
Six years after India was agog with allegations that Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty's parents were trying to extort money from a Gujarat-based businessman, one of the underworld henchmen involved in the high-profile case has been arrested in Kathmandu.
- IANS
- Published: 23:33 January 16, 2009
- Shilpa Shetty (second from right) with her parents and sister Shamita. A businessman alleged in 2003 that Shilpa's parents were trying to extort money from him.
- Image Credit: IANS file
Kathmandu: Six years after India was agog with allegations that Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty's parents were trying to extort money from a Gujarat-based businessman, one of the underworld henchmen involved in the high-profile case has been arrested in Kathmandu.
Uday Shetty, who was on the Indian police's wanted list for his role in the Praful Sarees scandal in 2003, has been arrested in Nepal's Birgunj town on the India-Nepal border, security sources said yesterday.
Though Uday was arrested on Monday, Nepal police had not released the information as a manhunt had been launched to get the rest of his gang members.
While four more were caught on Tuesday, sources said police were looking for another four members of the gang.
Underworld figures
Uday hit the headlines in 2003 when Pankaj Agarwal, the owner of Praful Sarees, a company based in India's western textile city Surat, complained to police that he was receiving extortion calls from Mumbai-based underworld figures, allegedly on behalf of actor Shilpa Shetty.
The quarrel went back to an earlier modelling contract, when Shilpa endorsed the company, but claimed to have got only a part of the money she had been offered.
From the taped telephone conversations, police said they had identified the chief of the gang, Fazlur Rahman, and his henchman Uday Shetty.
While Rahman later surrendered to police, Uday fled and crossed into Nepal, where he joined a new gang led by Amar Tandon, the alleged kidnapping-king in the country.
Tandon, whose gang comprises Indians as well as Nepalis, is believed to be the brain behind more than 50 known kidnapping cases, in which all the victims were usually rich businessmen.
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