Extortion case filed against Nitesh Rane by Juhu restaurateur

MUMBAI: An extortion case has been registered against MLA Nitesh Rane, Congress leader Narayan Rane's son, and two of his aides on the complaint of a Juhu restaurant owner.
The aides, Moin Shaikh and Mohammed Ansari (both 36), were arrested on Thursday night for allegedly forcing Estella Hotel on Juhu Tara Road to down shutters for refusing to give Rs 10 lakh to Nitesh. The MLA told TOI on Friday, "Hitesh Keswani (one of the restaurant's partners) is a good friend; the matter has been handled wrongly.It is a case of misunderstanding and the matter will be resolved by Saturday."
The FIR says from January, the restaurant owners have paid Nitesh Rs 50 lakh-Rs 10 lakh each month. Keswani told TOI , "In September 2016, we took on rent a 3,500 sq ft sea-facing property in Nichani Kuttir. A month later, when the restaurant started, Nitesh called, demanding that he be made a partner."
We refused, and he started threatening us. We met him at various places, but stuck to our stand. Finally he forced us to make one Parag Sanghvi a partner. As investment, he paid Rs 1.5 crore, which is a pittance compared to our investment."
Parag pulled out of the partnership in January, saying he wasn't earning any profit. "We paid back his investment," Keswani said.
"But the problem continued," another partner said. "Nitesh kept calling us, repeatedly asking to be made a partner. Ultimately he demanded that he be paid Rs10 lakh every month. We started paying through RTGS to his account. After this month's payment, we told him we were running losses and so it would be difficult to meet his demand. This annoyed Nitesh."
The complainants said they obtained all licences and permissions from civic authorities before starting their business.
The case against Nitesh, Shaikh and Ansari has been filed at the Santacruz police station, under the Indian Penal Code's sections 384 (extortion), 452 (house-trespass after preparation for hurt, assault or wrongful restraint), 504 (insult) and 506 (criminal intimidation).
Mumbai police spokesperson DCP Rashmi Karandikar said action against Nitesh would be based on the investigation's findings. "The two men who have been arrested tried to shut down the hotel forcibly. They used abusive language and ransacked the restaurant."