Mumbai: Mumbai’s Vikhroli Police and Mumbai Crime Branch have claimed to have arrested three people on charges of extortion. A businessman was kidnapped and taken to Nagaland and a ransom of Rs 1.5 crore was demanded from him. The businessman is a resident of Badalpur police station area and has a land plotting business. That is why the three kidnapped the businessman and demanded a ransom of Rs 1.5 crore and threatened to kill him otherwise. Parallel investigation of the case was handed over to the Crime Branch and a team of Mumbai Crime Branch went to Nagaland and recovered the kidnapped businessman from there and arrested the three accused involved in it. This operation was carried out under the leadership of Mumbai Police Commissioner Deven Bharti, Joint Police Commissioner Crime Lakshmi Gautam, DCP Raj Tilak Roshan and other senior officials.

Kolkata, June 14: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has unearthed fresh evidence indicating the direct involvement of Azad Mullick, a Pakistani national arrested in Kolkata in April, in a major racket involving fake Electoral Photo Identity Cards (EPICs), in addition to earlier charges of passport fraud and hawala operations.

According to ED sources, the agency has launched a deeper investigation following specific leads that point to Azad’s key role in facilitating fake EPICs, especially for illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators.

Mullick is already facing two serious allegations — involvement in a fake Indian passport syndicate and operating an underground hawala network from Kolkata.

The latest findings suggest that Azad had managed to penetrate local administrative networks to obtain and distribute forged voter IDs.

The ED has formally sought details of 78 EPIC cardholders from the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), West Bengal.

Investigators suspect that at least 55 of these cards were arranged by Azad, with recipients primarily from the bordering districts of North 24 Parganas and Nadia.

The CEO’s office has, in turn, asked the district magistrates of these areas to verify the identities of the listed individuals, and a comprehensive report is expected to be submitted to the ED by the end of this month.

During interrogation, Azad reportedly admitted to being listed as a voter in the Dum Dum-Uttar Assembly constituency in North 24 Parganas — one of the seven assembly segments under the Dum Dum Lok Sabha seat.

He is believed to have voted in both the 2021 and 2024 elections. The ED has requested the CEO’s office to furnish documents based on which Azad procured his EPIC.

The issue of foreign nationals acquiring Indian voter IDs has emerged as a politically charged matter in West Bengal, particularly ahead of next year’s Assembly elections.

In a related development on Friday, the CEO’s office reportedly removed Newton Das — a person holding dual citizenship of India and Bangladesh — from the electoral rolls.

Das, who was active in the student movement in Bangladesh last year, had been registered as a voter in the Kakdwip Assembly constituency of South 24 Parganas district.

Azad’s case, however, is even more complex. When the ED arrested him in April, seized documents initially indicated that he was a Bangladeshi national who had acquired Indian documents — including a passport — using fake credentials.

But on April 29, the ED informed a special court in Kolkata that Mullick had confessed to originally being a Pakistani citizen. He reportedly admitted to first obtaining Bangladeshi citizenship through forged documents, and subsequently using the same modus operandi to acquire Indian identity documents.

Mumbai: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has successfully extradited Tahir Salim Dola from UAE through INTERPOL. Tahir Salim Dola is wanted by Mumbai Police.

The International Police Cooperation Unit (IPCU), CBI in collaboration with Abu Dhabi, Dubai, UAE successfully extradited Tahir Salim Dola to India today on a wanted Red Corner Notice. Dola was brought to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, Mumbai on Friday from Dubai via flight AI-984. The geolocation in UAE was a result of close liaison of CBI with NCB Abu Dhabi through INTERPOL. Tahir Salim Dola is wanted by Mumbai Police in FIR No. 67/2024 registered at Police Station Kurla for running a synthetic drug manufacturing factory in Sangli, Maharashtra. A total of 126.141 kg of Mephedrone (MD) drugs worth Rs 2.522 million were recovered and seized from the said factory linked to Tahir Salim Dola and others. During investigation of the case, it was revealed that accused Tahir Salim Dola was running a synthetic drug manufacturing factory from abroad. A Red Notice was issued to CBI by INTERPOL on 25 November 2024 on the request of Mumbai Police. NCB Abu Dhabi informed on 27 January 2025 that accused Tahir Salim Dola has been arrested in UAE. An extradition request has been sent to UAE by Mumbai Police through Ministry of Home Affairs. Red Notices published by INTERPOL are sent to all law enforcement agencies across the world to trace wanted criminals.