Mumbai: The Santacruz police have arrested a 31-year-old operations manager, Dinath Shetty, for allegedly embezzling Rs1.23 crore from Banana Leaf, a popular restaurant chain. Dinath, who managed five branches of the restaurant, was apprehended in Mangaluru and brought to Mumbai on a transit remand on October 15.

According to the FIR, Suraj Shetty, director of Malgudi Foods, which operates Banana Leaf restaurants across India, filed a complaint against Dinath in September 2024. As operations manager, Dinath was entrusted with overseeing accounts, rental agreements, procurement of goods, and equipment for the restaurant’s five branches. The FIR alleges that between January 9, 2024, and May 1, 2024, Dinath siphoned off over a crore while working at the Juhu Tara Road branch in Santacruz West. At the time, he resided in Mira Road East.

Following the registration of the case, Dinath went off the grid, switching off his mobile phone, halting banking transactions, and ceasing social media activity to evade detection. The breakthrough in the case came when the Santacruz police obtained a CIBIL TransUnion report, which revealed that Dinath had taken loans from at least 10 banks, including a car loan. Using the car’s registration number, the police traced the vehicle to Mangaluru, where it had been flagged for traffic violations.

With assistance from the Mangaluru police, a team led by investigation officer Sarad Jadhav, under the supervision of crime police inspector Chandrakant Kamble and senior police inspector Yogesh Shinde, conducted a two-day operation in Mangaluru. Their efforts culminated in Dinath’s arrest, and he was subsequently brought to Mumbai for a three-day transit remand.

Mumbai: The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) officials have apprehended municipal commissioner of Jalna in a bribery case, officials said on Friday. The accused public servant has been identified as Santosh Khandekar (48).

According to the ACB, the complainant, who is a contractor had claimed that the Commissioner and Administrator of Jalna Municipal Corporation Santosh Khandekar had taken Rs 40 lakh from the contractor to issue work order and approve the payment of the works.

Technical approval has been received for the construction of CC road and DP road from Valmik Nagar (Gandhinagar) bridge to Ring Road and its tender amount is Rs 2.90 crore excluding GST. The work order for the said work has been issued and the said work has been completed within the given time and the running payment of Rs 2.82 crore has been submitted for approval. Out of the said payment, Rs 1.92 crore has been received and the remaining Rs 90 lakh is yet to be received, ACB officials said.

“To release the remaining Rs90 lakh Khandekar l asked the complainant to come to his government residence on Thursday with Rs 20 lakh, but since the complainant did not want to pay the money, he appeared before ACB office at Jalna and filed a written complaint. Based on the said complaint, on Thursday, at around 19.35 pm, a trap was laid and Santosh Khandekar, Municipal Commissioner, Jalna, was caught while accepting bribe of Rs 10 lakh from the complainant,” the ACB claimed in a statement.

Khandekar was detained by Jalna Deputy Superintendent of Police, ACB, B. S. Jadhwar.

Palghar: The Mira-Bhayandar, Vasai-Virar (MBVV) Crime Branch has arrested two men from Bhiwandi for allegedly blackmailing an 18-year-old girl after recording her obscene video during a video call. The accused had extorted money from the victim and threatened to make the video viral.

According to police, the victim received a friend request on Instagram in August 2025 from a man claiming to be from Delhi and currently doing business in London. The two began chatting on WhatsApp soon after. On the night of September 6, 2025, the accused allegedly coerced the girl to undress during a video call and recorded the act.

The next day, he called her again—this time posing as an officer from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)—and threatened to leak the video online unless she paid ₹18,000. The victim, unable to arrange the full amount, transferred part of the money to a bank account provided by the accused. Despite this, the harassment continued, with the accused calling from different numbers, demanding more money, and even sending the obscene video to her father and brother to increase pressure.

A case was registered at Naya Nagar Police Station under Sections 75(1), 77, 78(1)(ii) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and Sections 66(E) and 67(A) of the Information Technology Act.

During investigation, the Crime Branch Unit 1, Kashimira, launched a parallel probe. Technical analysis and inputs from informants revealed that the extorted money had been received in the account of Mohammad Shadab Ansari, a resident of Bhiwandi, who later transferred it to another Bhiwandi resident, Mohammad Taha Ansari.

Upon interrogation, Taha Ansari admitted to converting part of the ransom into USDT cryptocurrency and sending it to a foreign-based contact identified as Waqas Khan. Both accused were handed over to the Nayanagar Police for further legal action.

Police have urged citizens, especially young social media users, to be cautious while interacting with strangers online and to immediately report any incidents of sextortion or cyber blackmail to www.cybercrime.gov.in or the nearest police station.