MUMBAI, Apr 21:
A woman has been arrested from Madhya Pradesh for allegedly trying to extort crores of rupees from Maharashtra social justice minister Dhananjay Munde by threatening to accuse him of rape, Mumbai police said on Thursday.
Renu Sharma (40), the accused, is the sister of Karuna Sharma who had claimed last year that she was the NCP politician’s second wife. A First Information Report (FIR) was registered at the Malabar Hill police station against Renu Sharma on Munde’s complaint, after which the crime branch of the Mumbai police took over the case and arrested her from Indore in Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday, an official said.
She was produced before a court in Indore and brought to Mumbai on transit remand, he said. Renu Sharma had allegedly demanded Rs 5 crore in cash and a shop valued at Rs 5 crore, mobile phones and other expensive gifts from Munde by threatening to defame him by lodging a complaint of rape, the official said.
Munde initially gave her Rs 3 lakh and a mobile phone valued at Rs 1.42 lakh through one person, but approached police when her demands did not cease, the official said, adding a probe was on.
Talking to reporters in his home district Beed, the NCP minister said he was being harassed by the woman for nearly two years. “I was harassed for the past one-and-half to two years.
Earlier too, she had lodged a false complaint against me and later withdrew it. I had to complain to the police eventually since I could not tolerate it (the harassment) anymore. While making the complaint, I submitted all evidence I had to the police. Now, the law will take its own course,” Munde said. (PTI)
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