Cricketer Rinku Singh, earlier this year, received an email demanding money from the accused arrested for sending an extortion mail to Zeeshan Siddique, son of slain NCP leader Baba Siddique, police said.
However, the email sent to the ID of the individual handling the cricketer’s promotion activity was not even read by them. It was only when the Mumbai crime branch, during their probe in the Zeeshan Siddique case, found the mails to the cricketer, that they contacted his agent and recorded their statement.
The accused Mohammad Dilshad Naved, a native of Bihar who was working in the West Indies , is currently behind bars and a chargesheet was filed against him last month.
An officer said that they have mentioned in the chargesheet that during investigation, they found Dilshad had sent multiple mails to the ID used for the cricketer’s commercial engagements.
While in the first mail, Dilshad allegedly professed admiration of the cricketer and claimed to be a fan.
He demanded Rs 5 crore from him to ‘help him out’. However, when there was no response, he claimed to be linked to the D Company, the crime network of fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim, and sought money at the place and time of his choice, an official said.
“After he still did not receive any response, he then decided to target Zeeshan Siddique in April demanding Rs 10 crore and again claiming to be from the D Company. This time around however, Zeeshan Siddique saw the mail and gave a complaint to the Mumbai police,” an official said.
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The police had issued a Look Out Circular and arrested Dilshad as soon as he reached India from Trinidad and Tobago in August this year. An official added that Dilshad was not linked to any gang and worked at his uncle’s grocery store in the West Indies.
