Mumbai: The Vishwa Hindu Parishad has issued illegal regulations to ban Garba Dandiya games for Muslim youth during Navratri starting from October 11. The state government should clarify its stand in this regard and show that no one is above the law, demanded Samajwadi Party’s Bhiwandi East MLA Raees Sheikh on Sunday. In this regard, MLA Raees Sheikh said that festivals create harmony in the society and there is a tradition of participating in festivals of other religions in India. People of other religions participate happily in Eid and Ramzan. However, Muslims are being deliberately targeted by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal. Recently, in New York, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat had made a statement that ‘one who does not say ‘Muslims are not Hindus’. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad must not have taken notice of Bhagwat’s statement while issuing a fatwa to ban Garba Dandiya for Muslims. It is the policy of RSS and BJP to present one idea and actually do the opposite, this is cultural policing by Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal. Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s fatwa to ban Muslims is against the Indian Constitution. The state government should take serious note of this order. Because the possibility of creating a law and order problem due to such an extremist stance cannot be ruled out. Festivals are the culture of Indians and a celebration of sharing communal feelings. However, recently extremist organizations like Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad are trying to incite religious sentiments and incite riots during festivals. MLA Raees Sheikh has demanded that the state government take notice of this and put a ban on such acts.

Mumbai: Police has claimed to have arrested 02 main accused from Jaipur, Rajasthan, who were involved in online fraud by creating a fake Facebook page in the name of Mumbai Wizard Traders 7 and making more profits through it. The complainant woman, who lives under the limits of Oshiwara Police Station, found a Facebook page while surfing on Facebook through her mobile on July 12, 2026. The said page was created in the name of wizard traders 7 and its URL was https://facebook-com/1221162594405776. She had made a post on the said page. In it, the accused had said that by depositing Rs. 99, she would get Rs. 9999. It was written like this. When the complainant clicked on the aforementioned Facebook page, he received a message from this WhatsApp number 8426965923. An unknown person from the aforementioned number informed the complainant about this scheme. When the complainant told him about taking the Rs 99 scheme, he sent Rs 99 through Google Pay on the QR code sent by him and sent him a screenshot of it. After this, the accused contacted the complainant from different mobile numbers till 03:30 pm on July 13th and on different pretexts, forced the complainant to transfer a total of 22 transactions from his account to different accounts, thereby defrauding him of a total of Rs. 73,521. Therefore, a case was registered under Sections 318(4), 319(2) BNS and Sections 66(c), 66(d) IT Act 2000 on the complaint filed by the complainant at Oshiwara Police Station. According to the statement given by the complainant in the said case, the first accused used the Facebook page wizard traders7 used in the case. After taking the information of this Facebook account, the two main accused who committed the said crime were identified and the following accused were followed by the cyber team of Oshiwara Police Station, Mumbai from Jaipur district, Doosa district of Rajasthan state for the last 04 days. They were changing their address from time to time. The accused were arrested with the help of local police from the local police station, Shiv Daspora, South Jaipur, Rajasthan. The accused were produced before the Andheri Court and sent to police custody till September 7. The items used in the crime were also recovered from the possession of the accused. These include 02 iPhone company mobiles worth Rs. 70,000, 01 Oppo company mobile worth Rs. 10,000, a total of 11 old used SIM cards of different mobile companies, 01 NSDL Bank debit card number, 01 Paytm company QR scanner with its UPI ID paytm.s2gotdq@pty. The accused have been identified as Deepak Sitaram Meena, aged 21, unemployed, Talab village, Taluka Lalsot, District Doosa, State of Rajasthan, Harkesh Gopal Meena, aged 30, unemployed, Rajasthan Jankap Colony, Taluka Kotpotli, District Jaipur, State of Rajasthan. After arresting both of them, the police have started further action and in this case, the police have also started checking the bank accounts of the accused. The said action was carried out under the guidance of the staff of Mumbai Oshiwara Police Station and DCP Parshottam Karad.

Mumbai, Sep 6: A crime resembling the plot of the Bollywood film “Special 26” came to light in Mumbai, where a businessman was kidnapped and threatened with arrest by a gang posing as Income Tax and Crime Branch officials and demanding Rs 1 crore to settle the matter.

The Andheri police have arrested six suspects in connection with the case, while the victim’s former driver has also been found to be involved in the alleged conspiracy.

The driver was reportedly dismissed from his job around a year ago and is suspected to have provided crucial information about the businessman to the other accused.

Following the complaint, the Andheri Police Station team launched an investigation and, on September 4, 2026, registered a case against nine unidentified accused.

Six suspects were subsequently arrested from Mumbai and Pune.

The arrested accused have been identified as Santosh Uday Khopatkar, 37, Vinay Ramesh More, 37, Prem Kishan Sabnani, 50, Pragya Harish Main, 27, Reshma Shamrao Warang, 41, and Sabina Hafiz Shaikh, 48.

The three other accused, identified as Shabina Shaikh, 48, Jitendra More and Ashok Shinde, 57, are currently absconding, and police teams are conducting searches to trace and arrest them.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Datta Nalawade said that the police also found that three other similar cases had previously been registered against accused Sabnani.

According to the police, the gang allegedly targeted different individuals in separate incidents and carried out crimes using a similar method.

The incident took place on July 17, 2026.

The victim, identified as 49-year-old Rajkumar Kandasamy, is a businessman from Sakinaka and runs a business dealing in eye equipment in Chakala, Andheri East.

The sequence of events began when the victim’s office employee, Gyan Subhash Nainar, received a panicked phone call informing him that Income Tax and Crime Branch officials had allegedly raided the office.

The fake officials reportedly confiscated the mobile phones of all 11 employees present at the office and disabled the CCTV cameras to prevent the incident from being recorded.

Soon afterwards, an unidentified caller contacted the businessman and claimed to be an Income Tax official.

“I am calling from Income Tax. Your office is being raided. Come immediately, or we will take you away,” the caller allegedly told the businessman.

Alarmed by the threat, the businessman and his wife, Priya, immediately ordered an Uber cab to reach the office. However, when they reached the gate of their residential society, two suspects riding a motorcycle allegedly approached them.

One of the men reportedly showed a fake identity card and claimed to be an Income Tax officer. The accused allegedly threatened the couple and forced them into the cab they had booked. The suspects then allegedly snatched their mobile phones.

While the cab was travelling towards the office, the accused reportedly signalled a female associate and other male accomplices to follow them. The businessman and his wife were subsequently taken to the accused’s office against their will.

When the couple reached the location, six men and three women were allegedly present and introduced themselves as members of an investigation team. One of the accused reportedly produced a fake search warrant and obtained the businessman’s signature on it.

The accused allegedly invoked petty cash regulations and demanded Rs 1.70 lakh in cash from the businessman. They also threatened him with a penalty of Rs 1.44 crore.

Another accused subsequently demanded Rs 1 crore, allegedly claiming that the amount would settle the matter and help the businessman avoid arrest.

When the businessman demanded an official legal notice in connection with the alleged raid, the accused allegedly abused him and threatened him with serious consequences before leaving the premises.

After the accused left, the businessman contacted his chartered accountant and officials of the Income Tax Department. It was only then that he realised that the entire raid was fake and that he had been targeted by a gang impersonating government officials.

Following the revelation, the businessman approached the Andheri Police Station and lodged a complaint, prompting police to register a case and begin a detailed investigation into the alleged kidnapping, impersonation and extortion.

A case was registered against the accused under Sections 204, 205, 333, 140 (2), 127 (1), 351 (2) and 308 (4) of the IPC. After the registration of the case, Assistant Police Inspector Ramdas Kadam and his team examined CCTV footage from around 50 locations as part of efforts to identify and trace the accused.

The investigation led police teams to Mumbai and Pune, where six suspects were arrested. Police are continuing their efforts to locate the three remaining accused.